Commerzbank intends to demand negative interest rates from wealthy private clients in the future. The chief financial officer of the second largest German bank, Stephan Engels, said that Commerzbank is considering the levies where necessary and justified.
According to it, it is about customers with deposits of more than one million euros. The discussion is far from burdening customers with savings of up to € 100,000, Engels said.
Corporate customers are already paying penalty interest
Many banks are already passing on the deposit rate of the European Central Bank (ECB) to customers in order to prevent losses. In 2014, the central bank had cut the deposit rate, ie the fee for deposits from banks with the ECB, to below zero, most recently, this interest rate was even tightened.
It was intended to encourage banks to use the money to lend to businesses and individuals instead, in order to boost the economy.
So far, most financial institutions refrain from passing on the penalty interest to private customers, so as not to entrap them. Some require interest only from a certain amount of deposits. Major corporate clients and corporations are already being prosecuted by Commerzbank.