It is our belief that the original Deposit Guarantee Scheme of €100,000 per person per institution holds more merit than a qualifying infinite guarantee as provided by the ELG.

The strength of bank guarantees was tested recently with the collapse of Denmark’s Amagerbanken. Deposit holders with balances beyond the Danish domestic Deposit Guarantee Scheme of €100,000 per person were not compensated for the loss of their deposits outside of the guarantee.

The Eligible Liability Guarantee Scheme

The blanket Government Guarantee ended on the 29th September 2009. The revised Government guarantee on deposits is a combination of the Deposit Guarantee Scheme and the Eligible Liabilities Guarantee (ELG Scheme). This ELG guarantee is closely monitored at a European level hence the guarantee is being reviewed at 6 monthly intervals. The next review will be in the coming weeks to extend the ELG guarantee.

The current guarantee scheme therefore covers the following:

Demand Accounts

The first €100,000 (€200,000 jointly) remains guaranteed under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme. There is no end date on this guarantee. 

The balance in excess of the €100K individually is covered under the revised Government Guarantee scheme -ELG. The current end date of this guarantee  is the 31st December 2011.

Notice Accounts

Notice accounts are covered under the Government guarantee scheme (ELG) for amounts in excess of the €100K individually (€200K jointly) until the 31st December 2011.
From a technical perspective if notice was to be given on 31st December the account would be covered under the Government guarantee scheme -ELG until the end of the notice period.

Fixed Term Accounts

Funds placed on a fixed term remain covered under the revised bank guarantee scheme for the duration of the fixed term. The revision here is that the fixed account must be put in place between the date the bank entered into the guarantee scheme and 31st December 2011. The existing Deposit Guarantee Scheme covers the first €100K individually (€200K jointly).

Dates of acceptance of institutions into the Government ELG Scheme:

Institution	Date of Issue
Irish Life and Permanent plc	4/1/2010
Irish Permanent (IOM) Limited	4/1/2010
Bank of Ireland	11/1/2010
Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank	11/1/2010
The ICS Building Society	11/1/2010
Bank of Ireland (IOM) Limited	11/1/2010
Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c.	21/1/2010
AIB Group (UK) p.l.c.	21/1/2010
AIB Bank (CI) Limited	21/1/2010
AIB Banks North America Inc.	21/1/2010
Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Limited.	28/1/2010
Anglo Irish Bank Corporation (International) plc.	28/1/2010
EBS Building Society.	01/02/2010
Irish Nationwide Building Society.	03/02/2010
Irish Nationwide (IOM) Ltd.	03/02/2010

Further information on the ELG scheme

Please contact our deposit advisor Emer Brogan for more information on new or maturing deposit accounts.