Euro zone sources recently said the national central banks in the eurozone are ready for exchanging their Greek bonds holdings into new bonds in the run up to a private sector debt deal to avoid taking any forced losses.

The euro zone is putting the finishing touches to a second Greece bailout deal for the approval of finance ministers to pave the way for a debt swap with its private creditors needed to avoid a ruinous default in March. The deal is set to include a legal requirement for bondholders to accept losses to put the ECB in a tricky position, leaving it open to claims it was financing governments.

The ECB would swap its bonds for new ones ahead of the private sector debt swap, according to two eurozone sources. It was said that this will help in staying of the debt deal. The process may start over the weekend, said the source and one of the sources said that the move was a technicality and that the new bonds would have the same terms as the original ones.

The ECB owns roughly 50 billion euros ($65 billion) worth of Greek bonds, according to eurozone sources, as a result of a controversial emergency support program started in May 2010.