Banking regulations that will establish a permanent deposit guarantee received the Governor-General's assent on Friday. The altered Financial Claims Scheme will operate from February 1 next year.The scheme provides permanent deposit protection of A$250,000 per person, per institution. It replaces the temporary guarantee covering deposits of up to $1 million that was introduced in 2008.Banking Amendment Regulations 2011 (No.1) also provides a grandfathering period for term deposits. Term depositors who entered into a term deposit before September 11 will be covered at the current level ($1 million) until December 2012, or until the expiry of the term deposit, whichever is sooner.Term deposits taken out between September 11 and February 1 next year will be covered by the $1 million cap until February 1 and then by the $250,000 limit.The regulations include several other changes to the Financial Claims Scheme. There will be no coverage for the foreign branches of Australian-incorporated approved deposit-taking institutions, however.The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which administers the FCS, will have power to transfer deposits to a new institution.Deposits held in pooled trust accounts will be subject to a "look-through" mechanism so as to provide protection to individual unit-holders.