Finance minister wants German small banks exempted from paying into fund

Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, has been lobbying for his country’s smaller lenders to be exempted from paying into Europe’s €55bn bank-resolution fund, government documents show.

The finance ministry told the European Commission that banks with liabilities of less than €500m should be granted “lump-sum exemptions” from contributions to the planned Single Resolution Fund, according to the two-page ministry position paper, dated February 24, that was circulated to politicians in Berlin.

Negotiators have to hammer out rules for how much banks will have to pay to fill up the fund after EU politicians agreed on legislation to create a single agency to handle failing eurozone banks.