MEPs agreed with a Commission proposal tabled last October to lift bank deposit guarantees from €20,000 at present to €100,000 in 2010. With the new coverage in place, Brussels reckons that 90% of all European individual savers' deposits will be protected against the failure of financial institutions. The current regime guarantees up to 65% of deposits.
For their part, MEPs made clear that coverage should be provided "unless a Commission impact assessment, submitted on 30 April 2009, concludes that such an increase is not appropriate and is not financially viable for all member states". In any case, the guarantee will be raised to €50,000 in June 2009, when the new legislation is expected to enter into force. Now it is up to national governmentsl to endorse the decision in the Council. EU finance ministers at the beginning of October proposed raising the guarantee to just €50,000 (EurActiv 08/10/08).
The main change the Parliament brought to the original legislative proposal was an extension of the scope of the coverage. An amendment added to the draft text calls on the Commission to present by 31 December 2009 a report "on the specific needs of SMEs and local authorities as regards deposit guarantee coverage levels".
SMEs had strongly pushed for their inclusion into the new provisions (EurActiv 15/10/08) and thus welcomed the new text. Nevertheless, they warned that a genuine guarantee scheme would ultimately only be decided by member states, reiterating calls for the Council to endorse the new proposal.
MEPs also took a step in a more conservative direction in comparison to the Commission's original proposal. Indeed, the Parliament agreed to shorten the payout period for deposits from the current three months to 20 days. The EU executive's plans had referred to a three-day payout period.
