D.he Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf is again taking action against customers with high savings who do not agree to the payment of negative interest. In a second round, the institute wrote to 1730 further customers this year because they each have more than 130,000 euros in their accounts. Starting at 100,000 euros, a so-called custody fee of minus 0.5 percent is due. Of the customers contacted, 24 have now received a cancellation because they did not consent to the new fees. A spokesman for the Sparkasse said on Wednesday when asked by Bloomberg, confirming a report by the Rheinische Post.
However, customers still have time to react. Only at the end of January should the accounts concerned be blocked from sales and the credit should be handed over to the responsible local court in the following month. Last year, the institute wrote to 1825 customers with a credit balance of more than 250,000 euros. At that time, 35 initially received a notice of termination. In the end, six accounts were closed and the money deposited with the local court.
The background to the custody fees is the negative interest rate of 0.5 percent that banks have to pay for parking money at the European Central Bank (ECB). After primarily new customers were initially asked to pay, the new fees also affect more and more existing customers. At the same time, the exemption limits, up to which no custody fees have to be paid, continue to decrease.
BayernLB subsidiary DKB recently introduced a custody fee of 0.5 percent for credit balances of EUR 25,000 or more, but initially limited this mostly to new customers. The increasing deposits in the accounts and the associated additional interest expense ensure “serious business burdens,” explained the bank as a justification.