According to the comparison portal verivox, the trend towards negative interest rates on call money accounts accelerated during the corona crisis. According to data from the portal, 80 financial institutions have currently published minus interest rates in their price lists (as of 8 a.M.). April).
Of these, 23 institutions led from 9. Marz to negative interest one. These apply to new customers first. The clear majority of the institutes spares its private customers so far however of it.
"In the corona crisis, the trend toward negative interest rates has once again accelerated noticeably," said oliver maier, managing director of verivox finanzvergleich gmbh. Since some institutions made individual agreements with borrowing customers, a total of more than 80 financial institutions were allowed to charge negative interest rates, maier explained.
In addition there were 7 financial houses, where the usually free daily deposit account cost fees. This resulted in de facto negative interest rates. The comparison portal evaluated the price lists of around 800 banks and savings banks published on the internet. The focus is on call money accounts. After data of the german federal bank there were in the past year in germany 1717 credit institutes.
For a long time, negative interest rates were charged, especially on very high credit balances from 100.000 euros and more charged. According to verivox, however, some savers with lower investment amounts are now also affected. According to this, at least 15 banks keep significantly less than 100.000 euros – three of them even charge negative interest from the first euro.
According to consumer protection experts, negative interest rates for existing and new customers are only permissible if the deposit fee has been explicitly agreed with the customer. It is not enough to simply change the general terms and conditions of business.
Money houses currently have to pay 0.5 percent interest when they park money at the european central bank (ECB). Even though there are now higher free transfers, the industry is complaining about a burden worth billions of euros. Banks and savings banks have long been passing on the costs to corporate customers.
Bank president hans-walter peters recently demanded that the ECB end the burden of negative interest rates on banks. "It is urgent to suspend minus interest rates immediately in view of the economic situation in europe," the president of the federal association of german banks (bdb) told the "handelsblatt" newspaper. This allowed credit institutions to strengthen their equity and made it easier for them to grant loans, argued peters.
Since the introduction of negative interest rates almost six years ago, the ECB has collected some 26.5 billion euros from european banks, peters explained. "This is money that the banks are lacking today to provide their customers with loans."