Draghi said depositors with guarantees should be sacrosanct, but that it was best not to touch any depositors if possible.

"You have a pecking order, ideally insured depositors should be the very last category to be touched. The (European) Commission draft directive (on banking) foresees exactly this.

"There isn't actually a specific distinction between categories of bondholders and uninsured depositors in the draft directive. But basically the point is that you, if you can, don't touch uninsured depositors," Draghi said.