European Commission: Malta ‘not correctly transposing’ Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive

The European Commission on Thursday sent a reasoned opinion to Malta for failing to transpose correctly the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive.

On top of their available financial means to fulfil a certain target level, national deposit guarantee schemes must have adequate alternative funding arrangements to obtain short-term funding in case they need to pay out the guarantee to depositors. This is not the case in Malta, the commission said in a statement.

This situation hampers the financial resilience of the Maltese Deposit Guarantee Scheme and, ultimately, the protection offered to depositors.

Malta failed to correctly transpose the Directive into their national legal order and now has two months to reply and take the necessary measures, the commission said. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.