Savers with €100k to lose if bank fails

Investors and depositors with over €100,000 in savings will in future lose their money first when a eurozone bank fails, EU finance ministers have agreed, as part of a major step towards creating a banking union.

EU funds will be the last resort when winding up or sorting out a troubled bank, and this is likely to come into force in 2015, three years sooner than expected.

The ministers took giant steps towards a banking union at their meeting in Dublin Castle, urged on by fears that the euro crisis could escalate after the Cypriot bailout catastrophe.