It has been legally controversial for a long time: Are banks also allowed to charge negative interest on savings deposits in the narrower sense, such as on savings accounts?

While many lawyers are skeptical even in the banks, Commerzbank made it easy and explained that when calculating a possible credit fee, it also takes into account how much money a customer has in the savings account.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in business.

  • Follow I follow

Consumer advocates had criticized this for a long time.

Now they are complaining.

The consumer center Hamburg takes on the role of the plaintiff.

The practice of charging such fees for deposits on savings accounts is illegal from the point of view of consumer advocates, as they announced in Hamburg on Tuesday. This also applies to the Frankfurt bank's plan to conclude agreements with existing customers on custody fees disguised as so-called “credit fees”. The consumer advocates filed a lawsuit with the Frankfurt Regional Court. Commerzbank declined to comment.

"Customers should not only receive no more interest, but also pay for the loan they have granted," said consumer advocate Sandra Klug.

With this regulation, the purpose of a savings contract is reduced to absurdity.

Commerzbank passed on general operating costs or other expenses that would be in the company's interests to its customers, without them receiving any additional service in return.

The banking industry has been groaning for a long time under the low interest rate policy of the European Central Bank (ECB).

When it comes to the amount of custody fees, many savings banks and banks use the ECB's negative interest rate of minus 0.5 percent as a guideline.

The institutions have to pay this interest on part of the surplus funds that they park at the central bank.

The question of whether you can park money in the savings account without negative interest is also important because some customers saw this as a way out of negative interest.

Some banks such as Raiffeisenbank Gmund am Tegernsee had stopped issuing new savings books with or before the introduction of negative interest rates, but at the same time assured them that if someone still had an old savings account, they could continue to use it without negative interest rates and deposit new, larger amounts there.