In view of the recent banking turmoil in the US, the head of ECB Banking Supervision, Andrea Enria, does not yet see any convincing arguments for higher deposit insurance. "I don't think a higher bar, a higher hedge, will stop the run on banks," Enria told a conference of ECB Banking Supervision in Frankfurt on Wednesday.
He is a bit skeptical. So far, he has not seen any compelling evidence to support this. The European Central Bank (ECB) has been responsible for supervising the major banks in the euro area since autumn 2014. Currently, there are 110 institutes.
The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank in the US in March had triggered a debate about the protection of bank deposits. When the Californian regional bank collapsed, customers had previously withdrawn $42 billion in funds from their accounts in just five hours. It was the biggest collapse of a bank since the 2008 global financial crisis.
Currently, up to €100,000 per saver and per bank are protected by national deposit guarantee schemes in EU countries.