Moments ago, in what was a generally expected development, taking advantage of Grimbo and the IMF's tacit grace period following the June 30 default to Christine Lagarde, and perhaps in an indication of just how serious Greece truly is to honor its creditor committments (not really: it just shows that without additional creditor funds, Greece can never repay its creditors), Reuters reported that Greece will not meet a 450 million euro ($496.7 million) loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund that falls due on Monday given its severe cash crunch, citing two sources close to the issue. 

Reuters adds that the missed payment will follow a 1.6 billion euro payment to the IMF which Greece also missed paying last month, making it the first advanced economy to ever be "in arrears" with the fund - the IMF's official euphemism for default. The head of the debt agency, Stelios Papadopoulos declined to comment.

However, it was not today's IMF (non) repayment that traders, if not Eurocrats and economists, are concerned about but tonight's maturity of a JPY 20 billion (about $160 million) Samurai note sold in 1995 and which matures on July 14. The reason why this paltry, in the grand scheme of things, payment is critical is that while continuing to repay the IMF is not an event of default if only purely technically, and for the rating agencies, a non-payment on the Samurai bond would start a cross-default cascade.