EU member states sign agreement on bank resolution fund

All EU member states except Sweden and Britain on Wednesday signed an intergovernmental agreement on the transfer and mutualisation of contributions to a single resolution fund, stepping toward to the Europe's banking union. According to the statement issued by Council of the European union, the agreement will complement a regulation recently agreed with the European Parliament on the creation of a single resolution mechanism (SRM), which establishes the fund and also features a central decision-making board. The single resolution fund will be fully financed by bank contributions. The SRM is aimed at ensuring the orderly resolution of failing banks without recourse to taxpayers' money. Such fund will involve both a systematic recourse to the bail-in of shareholders and creditors, in line with a directive on bank recovery and resolution adopted earlier this month, the statement said. Under the intergovernmental agreement (IGA), the fund will be built up over eight years, reaching a target level of at least 1 percent of the amount of covered deposits of all credit institutions authorized in all the participating member states. It is estimated that this will amount to about 55 billion euros (about 75.15 billion U.S. dollars). Under the agreement, contributions by banks raised at national level will be transferred to the SRF, which will initially consist of compartments corresponding to each contracting party.