The European Parliament Economics Committee voted to uphold the deposit guarantee scheme to €100,000 for all through different types of systems. However, the MEPs decided to allow Member States more leeway over how they design their schemes.This proposal was already raised by the Committee in 2008.

According to Peter Simon, MEP responsible for the report voted, the changes to the current legislation were necessary to make sure that banks themselves, not taxpayers and states, would be in the frontline of any measures to protect depositors. The new rules will also ensure there are stronger and more uniform standards across the EU. In addition, MEPs voted for payouts to be made within five working days rather than seven as proposed by the Commission. This is a similar proposal to the measure already taken by the committee in 2008.

With this vote, Economics Committee will give more room for the schemes to carry out preventive measures aimed at keeping a bank fully functional. Thus, there will an improvement in the balance between more harmonisation at EU level while giving Member States room to address national specificities. Whereas the Commission proposal allows only one third of a scheme's funds to be used for this purpose, the EP committee provides considerable leeway for a scheme to use nearly all its funds in this direction, provided the members of the scheme are, together, considered by supervisors to be able to also honour any payout obligations that may arise.

Moreover, the Commission proposes to reach a target fund level of 1.5% gradually within 10 years and MEPs decided to extend this to 15 years, arguing that this would allow EU banks to remain internationally competitive. This extension, however, still places an obligation on banks to pay up their contributions rather than only make cash pledges, as advocated by some Member States and MEPs. The committee would also require banks to inform depositors in the event that their deposits are not guaranteed by a deposit guarantee scheme and depositors must be offered the chance to withdraw their money without any penalties.

MEPs and Member States will need to thrash out a deal, over the coming months. Member States have yet to adopt their common position but will seek to do so this week.