The Swiss bank Julius Baer, specializing in wealth management, will stop imposing negative rates on deposits from its customers, it announced on Friday the day after the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB).
This lifting of the negative rates on deposits which apply until now to the sums entrusted to it in Swiss francs, euros and Danish crowns, will take place on August 1, the bank indicates in a press release.
The Swiss group justified this decision by the decision of the ECB to raise its rates by 0.50 point to bring its main rate to 0% but also by the decision of the Swiss central bank last month which had surprised by raising its key rate -0.25%, compared to -0.75%.
Since 2015, the Swiss central bank has continuously applied a rate of -0.75% to assets entrusted to it by banks in order to combat the overvaluation of the Swiss franc. But it broke with the status quo last month in the face of inflationary spurts that have accelerated month after month since the invasion of Ukraine.
This negative interest rate policy conducted by the Swiss central bank had the advantage for Swiss exporting companies of limiting the effects of the overvaluation of the Swiss franc, a major safe haven such as gold, the yen or German bonds. But they weighed on the other hand on the margins of the banks.
At the beginning of 2015, Swiss banks were initially reluctant to pass on negative rates to retail deposits for fear of losing customers.
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But at the end of 2015, the Swiss Alternative Bank, which notably includes the Swiss section of Greenpeace and the Swiss environmentalist party among its founding organisations, was the first to pass on the negative rate to deposits of more than 100,000 Swiss francs. It had justified this decision by the need to protect its leeway to finance new projects while the negative rate was costing it dearly.
Many Swiss banks quickly followed suit.
At Julius Baer, a bank which offers its services to a very wealthy clientele, the rate applies until their rise in early August for deposits of more than 500,000 Swiss francs and, for deposits in euros, of more than 100,000 euros.