79 credit institutions are still charging negative interest - Bavarian savers are particularly affected

Created: 08/18/2022 10:43 am

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

According to a new analysis, 79 banks are still charging their customers negative interest despite the interest rate hike in the euro area.

Consumer advocates continue to do so.

Munich – Actually, negative interest rates should be history after the European Central Bank (ECB) raised the key interest rate – four out of five credit institutions have already reacted and, according to the comparison portal Verivox, abolished the negative interest rates.

But not all German banks have stamped the so-called custody fees on the savings deposits of their customers.

80 percent of savings banks and banks have abolished negative interest rates

Verivox has evaluated the conditions for call money, giro and clearing accounts from around 1,300 banks and savings banks on the Internet.

According to this, more than 80 percent of the institutions affected have canceled negative interest rates for private customers since the interest rate hike.

However, at least 79 financial institutions still show negative interest rates in their price lists - 30 of them in Bavaria.

An overview shows which banks are involved (as of August 17):

Note: Since not all institutes publish their interest rates freely accessible on their website, there could be other institutes that still charge negative interest, according to Verivox.

"The vast majority of banks reacted quickly after the interest rate hike and abolished their negative interest rates," reported Oliver Maier, Managing Director of Verivox Finanzvergleich GmbH.

In the case of many cooperative banks and savings banks in particular, the negative interest rates were linked to the ECB deposit rate and thus automatically ceased to apply when the new key interest rates came into force on July 27.

"The end of negative interest rates is sealed," said Maier.

He expects other institutes to follow suit in the coming weeks and months.

"After the next quarter turn at the latest, at most a handful of banks will still be charging negative interest rates in private customer business."

Consumer advocates are sticking to lawsuits against negative interest rates

On July 21, the ECB raised key interest rates in the euro area for the first time in eleven years in response to record inflation.

This also eliminated the penalty interest of 0.5 percent that banks had to pay if they parked funds at the central bank.

The financial industry complained about billions in charges because of the penalty interest, many financial institutions passed this on to private customers from a certain sum on the account.

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Consumer advocates, on the other hand, consider negative interest rates on private assets in checking and money market accounts to be inadmissible, regardless of whether they are for new customers or existing customers.

Six lawsuits by the Federation of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) against various banks are currently pending.

There are first judgments, but they are not yet final.

"One can only hope that the industry will take the so-called interest rate turnaround as an opportunity to say goodbye to this legally very controversial instrument again without further injunctions from us or the consumer centers," said vzbv legal officer David Bode.

"However, without appropriate procedural explanations, the proceedings will be pursued further."

Inflation eats into balances

Due to the ECB interest rate hike, savers can hope for rising interest rates for fixed-term deposits and the like.

The first providers would already advertise for new customers with special conditions, reported Verivox boss Maier.

However, the high inflation is now gnawing at the savings.

"Even the offers with the highest interest rates do not by far compensate for inflation," said Maier.