20 Dec 2013

EU ministers agree on banking rules

4:55 am on 20 December 2013

After months of negotiations, European Union finance ministers have agreed on a common set of rules to regulate the Eurozone's banking sector.

Ministers have already agreed how to fund the new system to ensure taxpayers don't shoulder the burden of bailouts.

An era of taxpayer-funded bank bailouts is coming to an end. It took more than a year of hard bargaining but just before midnight in Brussels on Wednesday the Eurozone's finance ministers agreed on a new system to regulate the banks, the BBC reports.

It is a joint European institution called the Single Resolution Mechanism. It will decide whether and how to shut down failing banks before they do too much damage to the economy as happened in Cyprus, Ireland, and Spain

The cost will be covered by a €55 billion fund phased in over 10 years.