One thing is clear: If you put your money in a call money account for - say 2 percent - interest, you gain nothing.
He just loses less, given inflation of around 8 percent.
And one thing is also clear: why do the majority of savings banks in Baden-Württemberg and nationwide not offer any interest on the call money account?
Because they can.
Those institutes that are now waving interest on the call money account may also need it.
It's not a law of nature that institutes pay interest on deposits, although that's what you'd expect from a savings bank.
This also applies if the European Central Bank pays banks and savings banks 2.5 percent interest if they park their excess liquidity with it, according to the most recent decision.
Ultimately, banks and savings banks did not pass negative ECB deposit rates on to their customers in the form of penalty interest from day one.
And some – admittedly few – banks have completely dispensed with this step in the years of negative interest rates.
The market will take care of that.
Savings banks will also start paying interest again on short-term deposits and will not leave the field to other players as soon as customer deposits shrink significantly.
The only hope is that the interest rate competition, which is currently heating up, will not also involve institutions, which would then quickly become a case for deposit insurance.