EU plan to protect from future crises

THE EU proposed that bank regulators get powers to write down lenders’ senior debt and veto new products, as part of measures to protect taxpayers from future financial crises.

“Banks will fail in the future and must be able to do so without bringing down the whole financial system,” Michel Barnier, the EU’s financial services commissioner, said.

Options being considered include empowering authorities to write down or convert into equity “all senior debt deemed necessary to ensure the credit institution is returned to solvency,” the European Commission said.