First court bans negative interest rates - consumer advocates welcome the verdict

Consumer advocates see their assessment confirmed by a ruling by the Berlin Regional Court that banks are not allowed to charge negative interest rates for deposits on overnight money and current accounts.

Consumer advocates see

their assessment confirmed

by a 

that banks are not

 allowed to charge

for deposits on overnight money and current accounts 

.

"The Berlin Regional Court is sending a clear signal against the attempt by many banks to charge customers with custody fees in the form of negative interest," said David Bode, legal advisor at the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) on Tuesday.

"It is also gratifying that the court has obliged the bank to repay all amounts wrongly collected." The judgment is not yet final.

Also interesting:

Judgment on negative interest rates - what does that mean for savers?

In the first instance, after a lawsuit by the vzbv, the Berlin Regional Court declared corresponding clauses in the price list of a credit institution to be inadmissible.

The claim of a so-called custody fee for payment service contracts is not compatible with the essential basic ideas of the legal regulation, the court decided with a view to

.

With the

the customer must be left with at least the amount that he has deposited.

However, this is

circumvented

by the

fee.

(Az: 16 O 43/21).

The vzbv would like to have the admissibility of the custody fees clarified in principle and has therefore filed suits against various credit institutions.

According to the information, the Berlin judgment is the first decision on this.

Also read

Commercial banks that park money at the European Central Bank have had to pay interest for it since June 2014.

This

is currently

.

A number of financial institutions pass on the

 to their customers.

For some time now, the central bank has been granting allowances for certain sums in order to relieve the institutions.