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2. Further measures already on the agenda
Proposal on resolution tools for banks in crisis
The Commission's proposal on resolution tools for banks in crisis, adopted today, is the last in a series of proposed measures to strengthen Europe's banking sector and avoid the spill-over effects of any future financial crisis, with negative effects on depositors and taxpayers.
To ensure that the private sector pays its fair share in any future bailouts, the EU will propose a common framework of rules and powers to help EU countries intervene to manage banks in difficulty. Repeated bailouts of banks have fuelled a public perception of deep unfairness, increased public debt and imposed a heavier burden on taxpayers.
A common EU-wide framework of tools for bank recovery and resolution would offer tools to prevent crises from emerging in the first place and address them early on if they do.
This will provide a set of tools allowing for the managed resolution of systemically important institutions where necessary.
What instruments will the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) offer for the banking sector?
The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will have a lending capacity of €500 billion. For euro area Member-States not subject to a programme, the ESM will have the possibility of providing a loan for the specific purpose of re-capitalising financial institutions. The granting of such financial assistance is subject to a positive decision of the Board of Governors of the ESM, i.e. the finance ministers of the euro area Member States. The conditionality attached to financial assistance shall be detailed in a Memorandum of Understanding and will include institution-specific as well as horizontal conditionality. Recapitalisations can also be conducted under a loan accompanied by a fully fledged macro-economic adjustment programme. The ESM Treaty does not currently foresee direct lending by the ESM to a financial institution.
3. Other ideas feeding reflections for the future
The following proposals should be considered when mapping out the next steps towards a banking union:
Member States are offered the option, instead of creating separate resolution funds, to merge the DGS and the resolution financing arrangement. See FAQs.
Further, the Commission proposes the setting up of funds at national level which would interact and lend to one another when necessary, notably in the case of cross-border groups, to constitute a European system of resolution funds. Furthermore, the closer integration of supervisory and resolution arrangements for cross-border institutions will be explored further in the context of this mapping out exercise.
As to the prospects of allowing the EFSF and/or the ESM to offer aid directly to banks, this is also an important issue, not in the short term, but rather in the medium to long term. The possibility of avoiding or breaking the link between the sovereigns and the banks may be considered as an alternative for direct bank recapitalisation, which is not part of the ESM Treaty for the moment in its present form. It should nourish reflections in the future in order to go to the roots of this current debt crisis.