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ING Germany: New fee model from July 6th
Photo: Stephanie Lecocq / dpa
After Postbank and Commerzbank, ING Germany is now also lowering the exemption limit for penalty interest on deposits.
Starting in November, it will require existing and new customers to pay a custody fee of 0.5 percent for savings amounts of 50,000 euros or more, as the German subsidiary of the Dutch bank ING announced on Monday.
Previously, this fee was due for deposits of 100,000 euros or more and was only applicable to new customers.
"So far we have been able to largely offset the costs that arise from falling interest margins and the negative deposit interest rate of the ECB with our existing product portfolio," said ING Germany boss Nick Jue.
"However, the deposits continue to rise, also because many competitors have already introduced a custody fee for private customers."
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The European Central Bank (ECB) has been charging banks with penalty interest for money parked with them since 2014.
More and more banks are now passing this on to customers, as their earnings are already under pressure from the low interest rates that have been in place for years.
Postbank, part of Deutsche Bank, lowered the exemption limit for savings deposits to 50,000 euros for current accounts and 25,000 euros for overnight money accounts.
As of August, Commerzbank will levy penalty interest on deposits of EUR 50,000 or more.
ING Germany changes its fee model on July 6th.
The custody fee will then be due from the beginning of November, the institute said.
Of the nine million existing customers, around 750,000 are affected by the fees.
You should be written to in the coming weeks and asked for your consent.
mik / Reuters