High customer deposits are no longer a sign of trust in a bank and its strengths.
They are a cost factor because the banks have to pay negative interest of 0.5 percent for their excess funds, which they park at the European Central Bank (ECB).
The bank levy to the EU resolution fund SRF also rises with the high deposits, because they inflate the balance sheets.
As the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) announced on Friday, the bank levy for German institutions will increase by almost 12 percent this year to 2.49 billion euros.
Markus Frühauf
Editor in business.
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Within two years, this contribution has swelled by almost half a billion euros.
The associations of the German banking industry criticized this increase very sharply.
At the forefront is Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank and President of the Private Banking Association: The year after year, the contributions to the European resolution fund, which are increasing, are not due to increased risks in the banking system, but rather to the ECB's loose monetary policy, he said at an end of June Financial conference in Frankfurt, about which the FAZ had reported.
For the past financial year, the European banks had to pay more than 10 billion euros to the European crisis pot, which corresponds to an increase of 60 percent compared to 2016.
According to Sewing, the selected calculation model now estimates the fund's target volume at 78 billion euros.
Originally, 55 billion euros had been targeted by 2024.
According to BaFin, the SRF currently has funds of 52 billion euros.
Disadvantage to American competitors
The banks point out that they could provide additional loans in the hundreds of billions if the originally targeted volume remained. They also criticize the fact that negative interest rates and the bank levy weaken their profitability compared to American competitors. These do not have to pay negative interest; instead, the Federal Reserve pays interest on their deposits. According to Sewing's predecessor at the head of the banking association, Hans-Walter Peters, European banks have paid EUR 30 billion in negative ECB interest rates over the past six years. American banks, on the other hand, receive interest on their deposits from the Federal Reserve.
Private banks account for 1.4 billion euros of the bank levy this year. The Landesbanken and top institutes of the Sparkassen and Volksbanken - such as Deka-Bank or DZ Bank - have to pay 473 million euros, the savings banks 273 million euros and the Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken 168 million euros.