On 21 May 2014, the Council of the European Union announced that representatives of 26 EU member states had signed an intergovernmental agreement on the transfer of contributions to a single EU resolution fund to be established under the EU banking union. The United Kingdom and Sweden did not sign the agreement. The agreement relates to the recently agreed Single Resolution Mechanism ("SRM") Regulation which will establish the fund and a central decision-making board. The fund, which will be financed by bank contributions, will be developed over eight years to reach a target level of at least 1 percent of all covered deposits of all authorized banks in participating member states. The agreement will enter into force following a period of ratification. The intention is for the ratification process to be completed in time for the SRM to become fully operational by 1 January 2016.
The Council's announcement is available at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/14271 0.pdf.
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