EU Proposes Account Freezes to Halt Bank Runs

If you have been paying attention over the last few years then you know central banks have cracked down on accounts all over the world and screwed account holders from Cyprus to Greece and Turkey to India. Account holders have either had their accounts frozen or "allowed" to only take out small withdraws with daily limits to outright cash nullification and currency notes discontinued and/or removed. Many of these changes were implemented fast and many people did not have the means to pull their funds out in time and it looks like it's happening again this time in the EU zone.

When banks get in financial trouble and account holders want to withdraw funds out in large numbers it is called a bank run. There used to be bank runs in the past in the US but the actual lining up at a bank won't ever be seen again. If and when future bank runs occur the banks will simply freeze accounts and close their doors. A new proposal is designed to do that very thing ahead of time to avoid any undo wrath of frustrated account holders.

• European Union states are considering measures which would allow them to temporarily stop people withdrawing money from their accounts to prevent bank runs, an EU document reviewed by Reuters revealed. The proposal, which has been in the works since the beginning of this year, comes less than two months after a run on deposits at Banco Popular contributed to the collapse of the Spanish lender.

• Supervisors would be given the power to temporarily block bank accounts at ailing lenders is “a feasible option,” a paper prepared by the Estonian presidency of the EU said, acknowledging that member states were divided on the issue. EU countries that already allow a moratorium on bank payouts in insolvency procedures at national level, like Germany, support the measure, officials said.

• "The desire is to prevent a bank run, so that when a bank is in a critical situation it is not pushed over the edge," a person familiar with German government's thinking said. To cover for savers' immediate financial needs, the Estonian paper, dated July 10, recommended the introduction of a mechanism that could allow depositors to withdraw "at least a limited amount of funds."

• The Estonian proposal was discussed by EU envoys on July 13 but no decision was made, an EU official said. Discussions were due to continue in September. Approval of EU lawmakers would be required for any final decision. Under the plan discussed by EU states, pay-outs could be suspended for five working days and the block could be extended to a maximum of 20 days in exceptional circumstances, the Estonian document said.

• "We strongly believe that this would incentivize depositors to run from a bank at an early stage," Charlie Bannister of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), a banking lobby group, said. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-banks-deposits-idUSKBN1AD1RS

So in other words you better keep your ears to the financial news and hope you can get there in time when a crisis occurs or be the first wave that gets funds out or you will be waiting outside in the heat or cold while the banks gain control over your funds. If you are a lover of freedom this should scare the hell out of you especially if you have large sums in any banking institution anywhere in the world.