Enlarge image
Consultation in a Munich bank (archive image)
Photo: Peter Kneffel / picture alliance / dpa
For those who seek advice from their bank advisor, this is usually free of charge, and often a cup of coffee is served.
Costs are only incurred when the contract is concluded - in the form of a commission.
However, because some institutes sell products and services that ignore the needs of their customers, this system has come under fire.
In the Greens program for the federal election it was therefore said, for example: "We want to move away from commission advice and gradually move to independent fee advice." According to the savings banks, there are signals that a future federal government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP could position itself in favor of fee advice .
360 euros for two hours of initial consultation?
The Sparkasse President has now warned against switching to such a system of independent advice for a fee.
Mandatory fee advice is an insurmountable hurdle for many small investors, said the President of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV), Helmut Schleweis.
"If a small investor first has to pay the actual costs of an average of 360 euros as a fee for an initial two-hour consultation, most of them no longer take any advice," Schleweis said.
"Such a requirement excludes large parts of the population from having access to good advice and is therefore lacking in solidarity."
In 2020, savings banks received a commission of 8.5 billion euros
Even today, due to legal requirements, commissions have to be disclosed in detail during and after the consultation, Schleweis explained.
»With commission-oriented advice, small investors pay little, large investors pay more.
We consider such a solidarity-based financing model to be better and more efficient than a system that divides our society based on its wealth. "A focus on fee-based advice would" widen the gap between wealthy and less wealthy investors. "
Schleweis warning may also have something to do with the fact that commissions - for example for the sale of products or in the real estate business - have become an increasingly important source of income for banks and savings banks in the ongoing low interest rates.
At the same time, it is unclear to what extent investors would otherwise book fee services.
Specifically, the 376 savings banks in Germany at the time were able to increase their commission income to 8.5 billion euros in 2020.
Last year, this position already accounted for around a third of the gross annual income of the public institutions.
In contrast, net interest income fell.
apr / dpa