Already in March 2009, the EU quadrupled its balance of payments support funds for non-euro area EU member states to 50 billion EUR and the EU committed another 75 billion EUR (approx. 100 billion US-dollars) in the form of bilateral loans to the IMF in order to support its lending capacity.
Estimates from the IMF suggest that, although the gross fiscal cost for banking support amounted to 3.6 per cent of GDP, the cost to the taxpayer is likely to have been recovered after the liquidation of the assets taken over by the government1.