Germany is known as the country of savers.
But the days when credit automatically increased are over.
Because more and more banks require a so-called custody fee for larger assets, i.e. a minus or penalty interest.
This also includes the Kreissparkasse Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
- Tobias Pfaff couldn't believe his eyes when he received mail from his house bank, the Kreissparkasse Garmisch-Partenkirchen, at the end of January.
Subject of the letter: an "agreement for the collection of a custody fee".
This fee should be minus 0.5 percent - from an amount of 100,000 euros.
That would mean that wealth would melt and not, as was common in the past, grow continuously.
Upside down world - but no surprise given the zero interest rate policy of the European Central Bank (ECB).
The Kreissparkasse in Werdenfelser Land is not an isolated case.
The wave of negative interest rates is currently rolling over savers - and is not stopping.
Almost every day new credit institutions are added that charge penalties on deposits.
"If things continue at this rate, by the end of 2021 more than every second financial institution in Germany will officially charge a so-called custody fee," predicts the financial portal Biallo.
The trigger for this development: The ECB has pushed the key interest rate to the record low of zero percent in order to support growth in the euro area.
Commercial banks have to pay 0.5 percent interest if they park money at the central bank themselves.
They often pass this burden on to their customers.
Sparkasse Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Introduced for private customers in the first half of 2020
Pfaff, a freelance software developer from Partenkirchen who lives and works in Munich, does not agree to the new conditions.
"That's not fair.
I don't agree, ”explains the 28-year-old.
After all, the public-law financial institution has the opportunity to make a profit with its capital.
Then he could immediately, the entrepreneur thinks out loud, keep the reserves in cash.
In principle, Pfaff can understand that penalty interest is due for high sums.
However, he thinks the minus 0.5 percent is excessive.
"The whole thing is not justified at this level," is his criticism.
About half would be appropriate according to his calculations.
After all, the banks at the ECB would benefit from tax exemptions.
When asked by the Tagblatt, the Sparkasse confirms the course: "Yes, we have made a personal agreement with customers - with high credit balances - to levy custody fees on these credit balances," it said in a reply.
These agreements - currently there are 861, mainly with municipal and commercial business partners - are individually agreed according to the regional bank.
Details were not available.
Just this much: orientate yourself on the ECB deposit rate of minus 0.5 percent.
In practice, people are trying to find an alternative form of investment, explains spokeswoman Manuela Petzolt.
According to her, the special tax was introduced for private customers in the first half of 2020.
It has been around for a long time with commercial customers.
Sparkasse Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Necessary in the current market situation
The Kreissparkasse, which operates six occupied branches in the southern district and has around 40,000 customer groups (groups of connected customers), explains in detail the unusual (and unpopular) step in its statement.
However, this is necessary in the current market situation.
After all, the safekeeping of credit is a service that causes effort and costs.
“In the past, the savings banks were able to cover this with surplus interest - this is no longer possible today due to the interest rate level,” reports the financial institution.
The former business model was simple: customers received interest on their deposits - and the savings banks worked with this money.
The surplus was their main source of income.
But: "In a world without interest, these previously completely natural mechanisms no longer work." In theory, according to Kreissparkasse, it would now even be more profitable to refinance via the capital market than via your own customer deposits.
The ECB tax exemptions did nothing to change this problem.
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