EU internal markets chief Michel Barnier is mulling plans for an emergency wind-up fund to deal with bank collapses in the future. The IMF supports the plans, but some countries are against the idea.
Deutsche Welle, 19 March 2010
Michel Barnier, the EU's man in charge of new European financial regulation, told a conference of financial watchdogs in Brussels on Friday that banks should pay for a future crisis in the sector by contributing to an emergency wind-up fund.
"The first essential step is for the EU to harmonize its rules over tackling troubled banks. And financial institutions should contribute to a central fund. This is also a moral question," Barnier said at the conference.
"Why should European citizens pay for the considerable risks taken by financial institutions?", he added.
Speaking at the same event, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, came out in support of the idea.
"What I think is needed is a European resolution authority, armed with the mandate and the tools to deal cost-effectively with failing cross-border banks," Strauss-Kahn said.
