On Tuesday 20 February, the national experts of the Council of the EU will discuss the conditions for joining (and leaving) the future European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS), the third pillar of banking union in the Eurozone.
The Maltese Presidency of the Council has put forward two scenarios to calculate the financial contributions to be made by the national deposit guarantee schemes to the future European Deposit Insurance Scheme. If the inter-governmental agreement (IGA) on which the Single Resolution Fund (SRF) is partly based is used as a basis to join the EDIS, this will require the member states to transfer contributions to the European deposit insurance fund equivalent to the amount they would have transferred to the fund since the system entered into force, the Maltese Presidency states in a document of which EUROPE has had sight. The Presidency goes on to add that this principle would involve a complex methodology due to the need to make the calculation by working out the historical contributions that would have been due before a national regime joined the EDIS system.
This scenario does not prejudge a discussion on the possibility of putting together an inter-governmental agreement specific to the creation of the EDIS, an approach that has the backing of the Council's lawyers (see EUROPE 11532).
According to the Maltese Presidency, various states have proposed a simpler approach to calculate the contributions of newcomers to the European Deposit Insurance Scheme. These contributions would be equivalent to the proportion of the national schemes in relation to the total deposits covered in all countries participating in the EDIS at the time of their accession to the fund. Ex-post adjustments could prove necessary to build in a risk-based contribution calculation methodology.
The questions to be put to the delegations include the possibility of developing common rules on joining the future European Deposit Insurance Scheme and Single Resolution Fund (SRF).
Contributions calculated on the basis of risks
In general, the delegations agree that contributions to the European Deposit Insurance Scheme should be calculated on the basis of risk, the Maltese Presidency notes in another working document related to the calculation methodology for the contributions of the national guarantee schemes to the European fund.
To allow the experts to make progress in their work, the Commission has compiled data for each bank on total deposits and non-performing loans.
Lastly, other discussions at Tuesday's meeting will focus on the national derogations enjoyed by the member states under the 'deposit insurance' directive. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)