Greek banks have suffered badly as rising political tensions and fears of a Greek euro zone exit prompted savers to pull out deposits, squeezing liquidity levels.

"Christos Sclavounis ... submitted his resignation to the Minister of Finance, which was accepted," the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund said, confirming what a banking source had earlier told Reuters.

The HFSF, funded from Greece's 240 billion euro (175 billion pound) EU-IMF bailout, has recapitalised the country's banking sector and also used its funds to wind down non-viable lenders.

The HFSF did not say why Sclavounis had stepped down or who would replace him.

Sclavounis headed the HFSF's nine-member general council that is selected by a committee which includes representatives from Greece's finance ministry and the Bank of Greece (>> Bank of Greece, The).

Sclavounis joined the HFSF in 2013 and his resignation marks the third high-ranking change in Greece's financial sector since Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras took power vowing to reverse the austerity policies that underpin the bailout programme.

The chairman and CEO of lender Eurobank (>> Eurobank Ergasias SA) resigned in February and earlier on Monday Greece's largest lender National Bank (>> National Bank of Greece) named a new chief executive and board president.

The HFSF has remaining funds of 10.9 billion euros in European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) bonds, which were handed over to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Despite a brief respite following a deal between Greece and its European partners on Feb. 20, banking sources told Reuters that outflows began to rise last week, reaching 300 million euros on Wednesday, the highest in a single day since the agreement.

Tsipras held talks in Berlin on Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about his plans to reform Greece's economy.

(Reporting By George Georgiopoulos, Writing by Costas Pitas; Editing by Gareth Jones)