Something of the order of €500 million a year to guarantee €440 billion euro of debt.
That's 0.12%, if my maths is correct.
Still, it is only an insurance policy and it must be risk-weighted, mustn't it? It's not like any of the banks are going to go bust and need the government to pay their debts. Sure what do those international investors know, charging 4 and 6% (and more) to insure Irish bank debt? They must all be begrudgers!
In the UK, the situation is a little bit different. The UK government has recapitalised the banks with preference shares and common equity. They are looking at a 12% return on it if it works out, but the difference is, this is money that the banks are going to use to pay off their losses and shore up their working capital. This means the banks will be able to borrow at better rates on the international markets, so the money the UK banks use to lend will be borrowed at less than 6% and lent out at 6%. (Say at 3% plus an insurance cost of 1.5% leaving a margin of 1.5% - not the real prices, but to give you an example). That's the idea of a well-capitalised bank, anyway.