EU leaders set no date for banking union, ask for plan to get there

European Union leaders reiterated on Thursday their political commitment to finishing the bloc’s banking union, but set no date for it, underlining the deep disagreements between governments on what needs to be done to get there. The EU’s banking union is now set up for the 19 countries sharing the euro but non-euro zone members of the 27-nation bloc can join too, and for aspirants to join the euro joining the banking union is now a condition. The project is to make the eurozone’s banking system safer and more resilient to crises. Under the banking union, all the major euro zone banks have a single supervisor – the European Central Bank – and a single resolution authority that is to wind down failing eurozone banks in a uniform manner. The missing element What is missing is a single deposit guarantee scheme that would ensure that any bank in any eurozone country would always pay out to its clients deposits up to €100,000 – a guarantee that would help prevent bank runs even in a major banking crisis. Calls to complete the banking union mean setting up the deposit guarantee scheme, but eurozone finance ministers have made little progress. Leaders asked [...]

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