Stricter penalty rates for German savers - Sparkasse president gives little hope

Bad news for all savers: The President of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association has not ruled out increased penalty interest rates.

Osnabrück - The criticism of penalty interest for savings deposits even below the 100,000 euro mark is loud.

The President of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association, Hemlut Schleweis, now defended the financial institutions against this.

He formulated his reasoning in great clarity: “Nobody can permanently act economically against the market conditions.

That is why savings banks also have to act. "

Schleweis said in an interview with the

that “the safekeeping of money costs”.

For every euro there would be a bank levy and security costs.

Therefore, it is “more and more of a challenge for the savings banks to deal with these deposits in an economically sensible way”.

This is one of the reasons why the prices for current accounts would rise.

“But they are still very moderate in a European comparison,” said Schleweis.

Sparkasse President: "There will be bankruptcies"

A lack of income as a result of the European Central Bank's low interest rate policy would increase the pressure on financial institutions to save.

At the same time, the financial institutions would primarily use digitization to make processes faster and more cost-effective.

The Sparkasse branch would have to change.

It should no longer be used for daily service, but more for comprehensive advice.

For this reason, the number of branches is falling.

With regard to the wave of bankruptcies expected by many as a result of the Corona crisis, Schleweis says: “There will be bankruptcies, but I do not expect a larger wave of bankruptcies.

I think that Germany is coming out of the crisis better than many expect. ”The savings banks * themselves have taken good precautions, despite the high level of lending, there have not yet been any increased default rates.

Loans in the Corona year: sums of money in the billions

According to Schleweis, the savings banks granted loans to 393,000 private and commercial customers in the Corona year 2020.

The sum of money given out through loans should be in the billions.

289,000 of them would already be served according to plan, said the Sparkasse President.

“We're back to normal operations,” said Schleweis.

Overall, the savings banks would have issued new loans amounting to 106.4 billion euros.

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