Plans to complete the EU banking union

LUXEMBOURG, June 22 (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers and leaders will seek agreement in the next eight days on a series of reforms to make the currency area more resilient to future crises.

Below are ideas for completing the European Union's banking union, discussed by finance ministers and to be considered by a leaders' summit on June 29.

They are based on an agreement between France and Germany, which lead the way on the changes, as well as the European Commission and eight northern European finance ministers.

WHAT IS ALREADY IN PLACE OF THE BANKING UNION?

- a single supervisory authority -- the European Central Bank -- for all large banks in the euro zone

- a single set of prudential rules for all financial institutions in the euro zone

- the Single Resolution Board, which can wind down failing euro zone banks according to the same rules.

- a Single Resolution Fund (SRF), financed by bank fees, to fund dealing with failing lenders. By the middle of 2017, it had accumulated 17 billion euros. When fully funded in 2023, the SRF is to have about 55 billion euros, or one percent of all covered deposits in the euro zone.

WHAT IS MISSING?

- a European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) which would guarantee bank deposits up 100,000 euros in the single currency area to increase savers' confidence and prevent bank runs.

- a backstop for the Single Resolution Fund that would prop up lenders during a major crisis. This money is expected to come from the 500-billion-euro European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the bailout fund for euro zone states.

HOW AND WHEN TO GET THERE?

- Germany and many northern European countries say they would agree to EDIS only once risks such as the level of bad loans held by banks are substantially reduced.

- France and Germany say banks should first cut bad loans to 5 percent of all lending. Italian banks have 11.1 percent bad loans. In Greece the figure is 44.9 percent and in Cyprus the average is 38.9 percent. Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia, Poland and Romania all have averages above 5 percent.

- Berlin and Paris declared on June 19 they would be ready to start preliminary talks on EDIS only at some unspecified date after June -- effectively postponing the project indefinitely. (Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by David Stamp)

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