Customers at Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest, will not be charged negative interest rates on their savings, a senior executive said on Wednesday. "That won't happen with us," private banking chief Christian Sewing told Bild daily. Banks across Europe are feeling the pinch of a -0.4 percent rate on their deposits with the European Central Bank (ECB).
The ECB policy aims to push banks to lend money for investment rather than keeping it in reserve, which would provide a shot in the arm to eurozone economic growth. Few banks have so far passed negative rates on to private customers. Regional Bavarian co-operative Raiffeisen Gmund made headlines earlier in August with plans to charge private depositors negative rates on balances over 100,000 euros (about $113,000).
Some of Germany's Sparkasse regional savings banks also said they would introduce negative rates on large deposits from business clients, sparing private customers for the moment. Deutsche rival Commerzbank provoked dismay in late 2014 when it began passing negative rates on to business customers with balances larger than 10 million euros in current accounts. While Deutsche has ruled out such measures, Sewing did warn of possible increases in administration fees for account holders. "A bank account is a service that costs something," he said.