Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel's promise that personal savings at German banks are safe is a political assurance, her spokesman said in Berlin Monday, implying a statutory insurance of deposits was not planned. "It's a political statement that can be relied on and is decisive," said Ulrich Wilhelm. The German government and its capabilities stood behind this assurance, he added.
Merkel herself, in a speech in the central city of Wiesbaden, said "the state's guarantee" had been necessary to restore confidence.
Wilhelm came under close questioning after Merkel had appeared on television Sunday and said: "We are saying to women and men savers that their deposits are safe. The federal government promises that."
But senior officials declined to explicitly say that an insurance scheme was planned.
Government officials who sought anonymity Sunday had implied the government was becoming debtor of last resort. There was initial shock in Britain, where the government has carefully avoided such a legal commitment.
By Monday it seemed the government was not legislating a safety net, but only saying it would do what it takes to completely reimburse personal savers if any bank were to fail, though officials refused to be explicit about this.
The ranking Social Democrat in the Merkel government, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was cautious in remarks on N24 television.
"Of course it has to be sorted out with the specialists exactly what this means," he said. "The finance minister and Finance Ministry are talking to financial institutions now."
Wilhelm said the promise that "not one euro" in current and saving accounts would be lost had been intended to reassure Germans and calm financial markets.
A Finance Ministry spokesman said the purpose was to prevent a run on the banks. The risk to Berlin involved an estimated 1 trillion euros (1.36 trillion dollars) in current and savings accounts and term deposits.
There had been indications that people elsewhere in Europe were increasing cash withdrawals from banks and Berlin wished to avoid this happening in Germany.
He said that unlike other nations' guarantees, Berlin was not guaranteeing the banks themselves, nor was it offering any assurance for businesses' banks accounts.
But the assurance would be a "sustained" one.
Guido Westerwelle, leader of the opposition Free Democrat Party (FDP), accused Merkel of "writing the biggest blank cheque in history," and charged she had no right to give such an assurance. This could only be done by parliament, he said.
