Brussels, 06/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - As of 3 November, half of member states had notified to the European Commission their national measures to transpose EU Directive 2014/49 harmonising national deposit (savings) guarantee schemes, a directive that came into force in July 2015.
Eleven countries say they have totally transposed the directive, viz. Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Austria, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland and the United Kingdom. Three have partially transposed it, namely Spain, France and the Czech Republic. Infringement proceedings have been launched against the other fourteen countries for failing to notify national transposition measures.
Under the directive, any savings of up to €100,000 held by individuals in a bank in the EU will be safe from any bail-in if the bank goes bust (see EUROPE 11061). Temporary amounts of above €100,000 (from the sale of a house, for example) will be fully guaranteed. National deposit guarantee funds set up by the bank industry must co-exist alongside the BRRD directive's national deposit guarantee funds. The national schemes are to aim to cover 0.8% of eligible deposits after a ten-year transition period. Funds in other countries are allowed to lend to one another.
Completing Banking Union. The application of European savings guarantee rules has returned to centre-stage because the Commission says it will be unveiling a proposal to put the savings guarantee aspect of Banking Union into practice, as recommended in the five presidents' report on enhancing economic and monetary union.
Such a proposal, which might be unveiled on Tuesday 24 November, would not foresee full pooling of national risks, but instead an intermediary system of a European reassurance scheme for national savings deposits schemes (see EUROPE 11424). “Completing the Banking Union, by agreeing on a common backstop and by launching a European deposit guarantee system is about sharing risks. I believe it's even more important to diminish risks. Only then, will we have a sustainable Banking Union which absorbs shocks throughout the eurozone,” said the head of Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, on Wednesday 4 November at the Tatra summit in Bratislava.
Hostility from Germany. Germany is opposed to any pooling of financial risks in the future and is recommending a reduction in risks on the markets and demanding that relevant EU rules be properly applied throughout the EU. At the last European summit, it blocked any reference to completion of Banking Union (see EUROPE 11411). On Thursday evening, the Bundestag passed a resolution calling on the German government to reject any measure to pool risks relating to national deposit guarantees. On the same day, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, was in Frankfurt to try to reassure German cooperative banks by guaranteeing that the future legislation will take account of the specific nature of member states' bank industries. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)