Brussels, 07/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Banking Federation (EBF) backs the European Commission's idea, set out in a draft directive, to introduce a bank collapse management programme (see EUROPE 10627). The EBF managing director, Guido Ravoet, said that if the recovery instruments fail to save a bank, then wind-down instruments would ensure continuity of the bank's key services that are economically viable. The EBF says the bail-in tool would be suitable for financing the restructuring of too-big-to-fail banks, but it is important that holders of financial instruments covered by the bail-in are no worse off than if the bank had been liquidated. The EBF says the transition period for introducing bail-in tools, which is due to run until 2018, should give banks time to understand how the new rules work and adjust over a period when the markets are expected to return to normal. On the question of how a liquidation should be financed, the EBF wants legislators to explore possible synergies between savings guarantee systems and restructuring funds, and fear that the cumulative impact of all the new regulations currently being introduced or brought in will impact negatively on funding for the real economy (the increased bank capital requirements known as the CRD IV package and the rules governing national savings guarantee systems). (MB/transl.fl)