Germany ? German lawmakers said Monday that they were drawing up a massive intervention plan to protect the country’s financial system as Europe’s biggest economy braced for the possibility of more bank failures.

Authorities said they were rushing to finalize details of what they called “Plan B,” a contingency measure designed to safeguard the overall German banking sector instead of just propping up banks on the verge of collapse.

Germany’s disclosure of the new effort came after an extraordinary Sunday in which Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the government would guarantee all private bank deposits held by individuals. Officials estimated the sum of such accounts at $800 billion to $1.5 trillion.