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Sparkasse branch: Negative interest rates for current accounts are permitted under certain circumstances
Photo: Fabian Strauch / DPA
Negative interest rates from a savings bank on current accounts are permitted under certain circumstances, the Leipzig Regional Court has decided.
Sparkasse Vogtland may therefore charge a so-called custody fee for new and existing customers who change their account model.
This dismissed a lawsuit by the consumer center Saxony.
The consumer center announced an appeal at the higher regional court in Dresden.
In one point, however, the consumer advocates were successful, with an account model for schoolchildren, trainees and students.
The account is advertised with complete exemption from fees up to the age of 21, so no custody fee should be charged, the court decided.
In principle, however, the Sparkasse can demand a fee as a special service for new contracts - even if account management fees are already being charged for a current account.
It should not be ignored that the banks incur "considerable financial burdens" by paying deposit interest at the European Central Bank (ECB) for the safekeeping of funds in the current accounts, the court said.
"Although the savings banks are oriented towards the common good, on the other hand they have to align themselves to market conditions and act economically."
Consumer advocates criticize "double pricing"
The background to the proceedings is the earlier plans of Sparkasse Vogtland to charge a custody fee of 0.7 percent on all new private current accounts with a deposit of EUR 5000 or more from February 1, 2020.
From the point of view of consumer advocates, the charging of negative interest violates legal regulations and is therefore inadmissible.
In addition, the consumer experts criticize "double pricing" through account management fees and negative interest.
In its decision, the court pointed out that the custody fee clause had been published in the price notice.
In addition, the Sparkasse had this signed by the customer when the contract was signed.
"The custody fee was thus included through an individual agreement, not a clause in general terms and conditions," the court reasoned.
Most recently, a court ruled that negative interest rates could not simply be included in existing contracts via a price notice.
The Sparkasse itself had waived custody fees for new accounts in February 2020.
According to an evaluation by the comparison portal Verivox, 367 banks and savings banks are currently charging negative interest rates from their private customers.
That is twice as many as six months ago.
This is justified with the low interest rate policy of the ECB.
File number: 5 O 640/20
hba / AFP
