The article deals with the definition of ’deposit’ in Directive 94/19/EC, the Deposit Guarantee Directive, as amended by Directive 2009/14/EC. It is closer examined in the article to what extent a loan to a bank qualifis as a ’deposit’ in connection with the directive.

The article concludes that deposits from provincial, regional, local and municipal authorities are included in the definition of deposit – provided that they fulfill the other requirements in the definition, i.e. that they come up to the definition “any credit balance which results from funds left in an account or from temporary situations deriving from normal banking transactions …”.

It further concludes that fixed term deposits – i.e.: loans – to banks by e.g. provincial, regional, local and/or municipal authorities come under the definition of deposit in Article 1(1) of the Directive, because it is a credit balance ‘which results from funds left in an account’.

It finally concludes that it makes no difference when interpreting the definition ‘deposit’ in the sense of Article 1(1) of the Directive where the de-posits were made directly by the depositor/investor, or indirectly through an agent who had screened the market for bank deposits for them.