SAVINGS BANKS SEEK COORDINATION OF EURO INTRODUCTION.

Summary:European savings banks are fearful that they will have to bear a disproportionate share of the cost of the introduction of the euro. "Because of their large, decentralised networks, the European savings banks will have to carry the bulk of the burden of this operation", says the European Savings Banks Group; "The greatest degree of equal treatment of financial support to banks across Europe should be guaranteed in order to prevent distortion of competition". ESBG says national administrations should make full use of the army and police for the distribution process, and that the whole exercise needs more coordination.

ESBG has conducted a survey of the public support measures envisaged so far in Member States on what it believes to be the key problems for banks in the changeover to notes in coins: logistics (transportation, security and storage) and finance.

The principal logistical problem is transportation - of both old national and new euro currencies. While transportation is normally conducted by private companies, the introduction of euro notes and coins is an extraordinary event and additional transportation will be needed during the peak periods of the introduction process. The insurance of the transports is proving a major problem: due to the abnormally large amounts of cash to be distributed, banks are finding it difficult to obtain insurance to cover the distribution and storage of euro and old national currency units, and the costs of any insurance will be higher than usual. The French Banking Association has reportedly asked the central bank for special discussions on this topic, but as yet had had no response. Problems have also been reported in Belgium. Moreover, Spain highlighted the fact that given the considerable increase of cash exchanges, together with the existence of only limited capacity to ensure adequate security measures, this will logically lead to an increase in the security risk and therefore, will have a direct impact on insurance premiums.

The safety of transports is also a fundamental problem. Under normal circumstances, the responsibility for the security of transports varies from country to country. In the Netherlands and Finland no public authorities are involved at all, while in Spain, the Guardia Civil is only brought in under exceptional circumstances. In France, full security details are not available to the general public, but the transit from the transportation firms to the credit institutes...