Savings guarantee raised to €100,000

Finance minister Wouter Bos said on Tuesday that the guarantee on bank savings accounts in the Netherlands will be raised from €38,000 per person to €100,000, ANP news agency reports.

Bos made the announcement after the meeting of European Union finance ministers in Luxembourg. The EU has decided to raise the EU-wide guarantee from €20,000 per account to €50,000.
Bos has said earlier that he would prefer a uniform ceiling for guarantees in the EU as this would stop savers moving funds from one member state to another. European markets were relatively calm pending the EU announcement after yesterday’s turmoil.
Meanwhile, Rabobank wants the government to limit the market share of the ABN Amro and Fortis banks in the Netherlands now that they have been nationalised, reports the Financieele Dagblad.
‘Parties with state support should not be allowed to strengthen their positions at the cost of banks which do not receive such aid,’ Bert Heemskerk, chairman of Rabo, was quoted as saying.
The paper also says that Bos is to give an emergency loan of maximum €34bn to Fortis Bank Nederland. In particular, Rabo, a cooperative bank, wants limits set on Fortis’ and ABN Amro’s share of the mortgage and savings markets.
And a Belgian newspaper reports that a local investor will take Bos to court over his role in the nationalisation of the Dutch activities of Fortis, accusing him of insider trading.