Commission adopted a legislative proposal for a thorough revision of the Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes
12 July 2010
The key elements of the proposal are as follows:
· Better Coverage: the upgrade to € 100 000 by the end of this year is now confirmed. This means that 95% of all bank account holders in the EU will get all their savings back if their bank fails. Coverage now includes small, medium and large companies as well as all currencies. Excluded are all deposits of financial institutions and public authorities, structured investment products and debt certificates.
· Faster payouts: bank account holders will be reimbursed within seven days. This will be a major improvement as today many account holders wait weeks, even months, before getting their money back. In order to facilitate such a short payout, managers of Deposit Guarantee Schemes will have to be informed early about problems at banks by supervisory authorities. Banks will have to specify in their books whether deposits are protected or not.
· Less red tape: for example, if you live in Portugal and have your account at a failing bank whose headquarters are based in Sweden, the Portuguese scheme would repay you on its own initiative and act as your contact point. The Swedish scheme would then reimburse the Portuguese scheme. This would be a strong improvement over the current situation, where all correspondence has to be done via the scheme of the country where the bank's headquarters are located. The new approach will mean less bureaucracy and faster payouts.
· Better information: bank account holders will be better informed on the coverage and functioning of their scheme by a new easy to understand standard template and on their account statements.
· Long-term and responsible financing: concerns have been expressed that existing Deposit Guarantee Schemes are not well funded. Today's proposals will ensure that they are now more soundly financed following a four-step approach. First, solid ex-ante financing provides for a solid reserve. Second, if necessary, this can be supplemented by additional ex-post contributions. Third, if this is still insufficient, schemes can borrow a limited amount from other schemes ("mutual borrowing"). Fourth, as the last resort, other funding arrangements would have to be made as a contingency. Contributions will, as is currently the case, be borne by banks. However, they will be calculated in a fairer way since they will be adjusted to the risks posed by individual banks.
© European Commission
