GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Paris Tzoumas, Vivian Efthymiou and Dimitrios Mekakas, Zepos & Yannopoulos
• the resolution scheme of Greek credit institu - tions. TEKE is governed by Greek Law 4370/2016, as amended (Law 4370), which transposes into Greek law, among others, the Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes (Directive 2014/49/ EU). TEKE is supervised by the Ministry of Finance. According to Law 4370, all Greek credit insti - tutions (including their foreign branches) and Greek branches of credit institutions incorpo - rated outside the EU must become members of the deposit coverage scheme held with TEKE. Such participation automatically activates the participation of credit institutions in the TEKE resolution scheme. Branches of credit institutions incorporated in another EU member state do not participate in TEKE, as they are covered by the Deposit Guar - antee Scheme of the respective member state where their registered office is located (home member state). Participation in the investor com - pensation scheme, which is another department of TEKE, is also mandatory for Greek credit insti - tutions. However, Greek branches of EU mem - ber states’ credit institutions may also request to participate in the investor compensation scheme of TEKE for supplementary coverage. Covered Deposits TEKE covers deposits held by natural persons or legal entities, irrespective of the currency (eg, deposits in savings accounts, current accounts and time deposits). However, certain deposits are not eligible and are therefore excluded from the coverage protection, namely:
• deposits made by other credit institutions or investment firms on their own behalf and for their own account; • credit institutions’ own funds; • deposits arising out of transactions in con - nection with which there has been a criminal conviction for money laundering; • deposits by financial institutions, (re-)insur - ance undertakings, collective investment undertakings, social security funds and occu - pational pension funds, public authorities and by TEKE; • debt securities issued by a credit institution and liabilities arising out of own acceptances and promissory notes; and • deposits where the holder or beneficiary has never been identified. The maximum level of coverage is set to EUR100,000 per depositor, per credit institution (irrespective of the number of deposit accounts held in the credit institutions, the currency of such deposits and the location of such deposit accounts) with certain limited exemptions where the compensation may be up to EUR300,000 (eg, for sale or expropriation of private residen - tial property, payment of a lump-sum retirement benefit or periodical pension benefits, compen - sation due to termination of employment, etc). Funding of Scheme An initial contribution must be paid by credit institutions joining the Deposit Compensation Scheme (DCS) of TEKE, within one month from the date on which they become members, which is calculated on the basis of Law 4370 and in any case cannot be higher than 8% of the credit institution’s own funds. New members pay the initial contribution in three annual instalments by crediting the dedicated DCS account with the BoG. Regular contributions are paid by credit institutions on an annual basis. The key fac -
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