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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, along with his Dutch and Danish counterparts, backed a tough approach in which uninsured depositors would contribute on the same level as senior bond holders when problems arose. While that would help limit the losses borne by other classes of creditors, some worry it could jeopardise financial stability and scare off savers. At the other end of the spectrum, France's Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said uninsured depositors should be excluded from sharing losses as a general rule, with a resolution authority able to question that in individual cases.
Michel Barnier, the EU's commissioner for the internal market, stressed that depositor preference wouldn't lead to dramatically higher funding costs for banks--a big concern for some countries--citing an impact assessment carried out by the Commission. "The fears of a drastic increase in funding costs are not in fact well founded", he said.
The date of entry into force of the new bail-in rules remains undecided, however. While ECB executive board member Jörg Asmussen said the new rules should apply from 2015, France's Mr Moscovici argued for a start date of 2018. "These measures constitute a considerable change to the environment and it is important not to move too suddenly", Mr Moscovici said.