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Frankfurt banking skyline
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18 months ago, the financial supervisory authority Bafin asked the German savings banks and banks to inform hundreds of thousands of premium savers that they were still entitled to a lot of additional interest.
But instead of a thoughtful nod, the supervisors had to observe a pack formation of the banks against the state power.
1,156 banks objected to the Bafin's decision.
The savings customers still do not get their money, thousands of euros in many individual cases.
Worse still, claims become statute-barred.
At the end of the year, customers from Dresden, Munich, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken and Osnabrück in particular lose the opportunity to receive their interest.
Because the decisive period expires three full years after the end of the contract.
You don't have to put up with that.
Here is the history: Since 2004, the Federal Court of Justice has issued a series of judgments on the interest rate savers must receive on so-called variable premium savings contracts.
Millions of these were offered under the names Vorsorgesparen, VZ Zukunft or Combisparen.
This is not trivial because these premium savings plans offer their customers a mix of an annual bonus and a variable interest rate.
The bonus is usually easy to determine, it is written in black and white in the contracts.
However, it is disputed which variable interest rates have to be paid when general interest rates on the markets rise and fall - which happens continuously (Federal Court of Justice: AZ: XI ZR 140/03).
The money houses try to withhold interest from their customers, which they are actually entitled to
In fact, for the past twenty years, things have been going as you would expect with your prejudices: Savings banks and some banks are trying to withhold interest from their customers that they are actually entitled to.
The strategy was simple at first.
If interest rates fall, savings banks can also lower interest rates quickly.
If, on the other hand, they rise, it often takes a little longer for customers to benefit.
Not only the Stiftung Warentest observed this in 2004 .
Even the Federal Court of Justice was displeased with these landlord-style interest payments when it first dealt with the subject, and over the years it has therefore instructed the savings banks in detail what interest is to be paid :
The variable interest rates must be adjusted to the respective market interest rate using a comprehensible and fair model;
and this model must be agreed with customers in advance.
Market interest rates are interest rates that the Bundesbank has regularly determined.
In technical jargon, these are called reference interest rates.
For example: Three quarters of such a reference interest rate are always paid.
If it is four percent, the bank then pays three percent.
The selected reference interest rate must match the type of savings contract.
Because customers save long-term in variable premium savings contracts, the reference interest rate must also be one that the Bundesbank, for example, determines for long-term transactions.
And long-term interest rates are higher than short-term ones.
The adjustment of interest rates must be carried out quickly.
If interest rates rise for the reference interest rate, the interest rates for the customer must also rise quickly.
If they fall, they can quickly fall with them.
If in doubt, also monthly.
After all, the banks' bookkeeping has long since been done by computer, according to the judges in 2010, so you can do small-scale and precise calculations.
The adjustment of interest rates must be relative, not at a constant distance.
If the reference interest rate fell from four to two percent, it has halved.
If the bank previously paid the premium savers three percent interest, this interest rate should also be halved: to 1.5 percent.
However, the premium savings interest must not fall by two percentage points to just one percent.
Only with this relative distance can "the basic structure of the contract conditions" be maintained.
The Federal Court of Justice laid down these four basic rules for interest rate adjustments in detail in a judgment in 2010 (Federal Court of Justice Az: XI ZR 197/09).
Exactly enough, one would think.
And, mind you, twelve years ago now.
But even after 2010, savings banks and banks have caught further judgments from the Federal Court of Justice in which their way of paying interest was criticized, most recently three judgments in autumn 2021.
Finally, the financial regulator Bafin was too colorful.
After many individual discussions at a round table, she tried to make it clear to banks and savings banks that not only would interest have to be paid in countless cases, but also that hundreds of thousands of customers who had not yet heard anything about their right to higher interest rates would first have to be informed that they deserve more money.
There is still a lot of controversy about how much the institutes have to pay in arrears
In 2018, Bafin determined that more than 1.1 million such savings contracts were concluded at 255 banks.
After all, which customer expects a bank to miscalculate the interest?
At the same time, the consumer advice center in Saxony and also the consumer advice center of the Federal Republic of Germany won judgments in test cases against individual savings banks, according to which the banks have to pay a lot of money to premium savers.
At the moment the dispute is still raging about exactly how much money, i.e. what specific interest rate, the savings banks have to apply.
In addition, the financial supervisory authority Bafin has tried to force the recalcitrant banks with the above-mentioned general decree to at least inform their customers that they may be entitled to additional money.
Bafin boss Mark Branson calls this general decree an "example" of the necessary tougher pace of financial supervision: "If there is a grievance, we have to do something, even if this situation is not clearly regulated in the law."
Almost complete customer information for a functioning market - that is too much to ask for banks and savings banks.
The at least 1156 savings banks and banks mentioned above objected to this information obligation.
The banks are now fighting the necessary information for their savings customers before the administrative court in Frankfurt - coordinated by the Savings Banks Association DSGV and the Association of Cooperative Banks BVR.
That can take years.
Why am I writing all this now?
Once to show how many savings banks and banks deal with their savers in this case.
First withholding claims, then not informing customers after judgments and finally preventing a state-imposed information obligation.
That drives me nuts.
My colleagues from Finanztip, together with the consumer advice center in Saxony and the citizens' movement Finanzwende, have even started a petition against this savings bank madness.
Finanztip doesn't do anything like that otherwise.
On the other hand, the matter annoys me because for tens of thousands of customers at the end of the year it's all about the sausage again.
Your premium savings contracts expired or were terminated in 2019.
At the end of the third year - i.e. now on December 31, 2022 - these claims become statute-barred.
So if those customers don't do anything now, the money they're entitled to is gone for good.
As inflation reaches the highest rates in post-war history, retirees who save are losing thousands of euros.
Thank God there is now an easy way in Germany to defend yourself against this kind of scam.
If you have a complaint about unpaid interest, contact the ombudspersons of the savings banks or the cooperative banks and request payment of this interest.
With this complaint you block the possible statute of limitations and secure your claims.
In addition, laundry baskets with a registered objection letter at Christmas also make an impression on hardened bankers.
As a customer of some savings banks, you could or can also join the model declaratory action lawsuits of the consumer centers against the respective specific bank free of charge and without any financial risk and thus protect your claims.
And with a good lawyer and legal protection insurance, you can even get your interest from the Sparkasse yourself.
A list of successful lawyers in this matter can be found here.
Attorneys at the district court in Deggendorf and at the district court in Regensburg recently won 11,000 and 12,000 euros in back interest payments.
As a voter, you can also talk to your mayor or district administrator, who often chair the board of directors of the local savings bank and should take the concerns of their local savers seriously.
The only thing you shouldn't do is sit back and let these credit institutions get away with a policy that relies on inactive or even dying customers - in an industry that actually lives on the trust of customers.
Short note: If your savings contract is still running, your claims are not yet threatened with the statute of limitations.
However, if you have not yet received a letter promising you more interest for your variable premium savings contract that has expired, feel free to ask when the savings bank or bank intends to inform you about this.
After all, information is central to a functioning market economy.
