When euro-zone finance ministers--together with representatives from the European Commission and the European Central Bank--readied Spain's bailout deal Monday night, there was much discussion over whether senior bond holders also should suffer losses when banks need official help to rebuild their capital, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

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Instead, the memorandum of understanding, as the bailout agreement is formally known, stresses that any plan to shut down banks must be "compatible with the goals of maintaining financial stability," using only "subordinated liability exercises"--both terms are jargon for sparing senior bank-bond holders even during liquidation. In the end, it seems, fears about injecting yet more uncertainty into European bank funding markets won out over the desire to limit taxpayer risk, at least for now.

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But in practice, that hasn't happened in the euro zone during this crisis. Even in banks the commission says aren't viable--Ireland's Anglo Irish and Germany's West LB for instance--senior bond holders haveso far been spared.