Corporate Savings and the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis: A Warning for the European Banking Union

The final step of the European banking union process should be the single deposit guarantee mechanism (SDM) able to allow for bail-in of the banks while the saving system is rescued. If the effectiveness of bank deposit insurance depends on the nature of the financial crisis and the corporate saving glut does in fact play an important role in such crises, then it could be worth looking into the structural, cyclical or transitory nature of the latter. This paper constitutes a preliminary reconnaissance of the phenomenon, seeking to understand its relevance in defining the nature of a financial crisis.