Two more German banks are to introduce negative interest rates for clients with large deposits. From April 1, Stadtsparkasse of Munich will introduce a negative rate of 0.4 percent for customers with balances of €100,000 and more and Volksbank of Hamburg is introducing a negative rate of 0.2 percent on balances of more than €500,000.
Deutsche Skatbank introduced negative rates in 2014, followed by Raiffeisenbank Gmund last August. The European Central Bank is currently holding hundreds of billions of euros for banks, and lowered its deposit rate to -0.4 percent from March 2016 to encourage banks to keep their money invested in the real economy.
In France, the law currently does not allow for negative interest rates, but many banks are hiking their charges and charging commissions and account-holding fees for those with large balances to find a way around the rules. However, customers with more modest accounts can also expect to be caught up in higher bank charges.
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