Einlagensicherung AUSTRIA (ESA ) is the so-called "uniform" protection scheme. It is responsible for deposit protection and investor compensation for the Austrian credit institutions affiliated to it.
Every credit institution with its registered office in Austria that performs investment services requiring protection must be a member of ESA. The only exceptions to this mandatory membership of ESA are the credit institutions of the Austrian savings bank group and the Austrian Raiffeisen group, which each have their own protection schemes - s-Haftungs GmbH (savings banks), Österreichische Raiffeisen-Sicherungseinrichtung eGen (Raiffeisen).
If a credit institution does not belong to any of these three guarantee schemes, its licence to perform investment services requiring protection expires. The Financial Market Authority (FMA) provides information on the current existence of a licence and its content on its website.
The ownership structure of a credit institution is irrelevant for investor compensation; all that matters is that the credit institution has an Austrian licence.
Deposit insurance and investor compensation in Austria are regulated in the Federal Act on Deposit Insurance and Investor Compensation in Credit Institutions (Deposit Insurance and Investor Compensation Act - ESAEG).
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
- When is the investor compensation provided?
Securities that are held in a client's custody account in accordance with the contractual provisions are merely held in safe custody by the bank. They are the property of the customer and are to be transferred to him or to another custody account designated by him at any time upon request. Securities are therefore in general neither a case for deposit protection nor for investor compensation.
If, however, in a compensation case the bank is unable to transfer or deliver the securities to another custody account as instructed, the investor is entitled to claim compensation from the bank, which ESA secures up to € 20,000 (90% in the case of legal entities, but not more than € 20,000) under the investor compensation scheme.
If the respective preconditions for the claim are met, you may claim from the deposit guarantee and the investor compensation independently of each other; there is no offsetting.
- Which claims are covered by the investor compensation?
Amounts resulting from the recovery from the customer's securities (e.g. dividend income, coupon payments, redemptions or sales proceeds) are secured as deposits on the customer's clearing account within the scope of the deposit guarantee and are added together with any other deposits of the depositor for the calculation of the maximum amount of € 100,000
Earnings that accrue between the arising of the compensation case and the payment of the secured amount are taken into account within the scope of investor compensation.
Kindly note that § 47 para 2 ESAEG excludes certain claims from securities transactions from coverage under investor compensation.
- When do I get my money in the event of a compensation case?
In contrast to the deposit guarantee scheme, a claim under the investor compensation scheme requires a written application to ESA, which must be submitted within 12 months of the arising of the compensation case.
ESA will compensate within 3 months from the time when the amount and the justification of the claim can be assessed.
You will find the application form on our website after an investor compensation case occurres.
Rainer Hassler
„Even in case of a bank failure, investors do not lose their securities, but can have them transferred to a custody account at another bank. If securities are no longer available in the event of a payout case, investor compensation comes to bear.”