Brussels, 27/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 27 February 2009, the Council adopted the draft directive on national guarantee schemes for individual customers' savings (see EUROPE 9806), bringing it into law. The new directive amends Directive 1994/19/EC by: - raising the minimum EU guaranteed deposit from €20,000 to €50,000 as from 30 June 2009, going up to €100,000 from 31 December 2010; - reducing the reimbursement deadline for individuals if their bank goes bankrupt (from 21 days for establishing that the bank is unable to reimburse savers, and 3 months to actually pay the sums due, to 5 days for establishing that the bank is unable to reimburse the saver, and 20 days - extendible by a further ten days - to actually make the payment to the beneficiaries). The directive scraps the co-insurance system under which savers would lose 10% of their guaranteed savings. It is one of a series of measures to restore confidence in the banking system following the financial crisis. (M.B./transl.fl)