The Commerzbank should not have charged its customers negative interest rates. According to a ruling by the Frankfurt Regional Court, such clauses are inadmissible (Case No. 2-25 O 228/21).
The prolonged low interest rate environment has led many banks and savings banks to charge so-called custody fees from their customers. Whether such negative interest rates are even permissible under banking law is legally disputed. The Frankfurt Regional Court has now sided with the consumers in its ruling on November 18, 2022, deciding that Commerzbank wrongly charged negative interest rates, explains the commercial law firm MTR Rechtsanwälte, which has one of its focuses on banking law.
A whole range of banks and savings banks have switched to charging negative interest rates in the past. This affected both call money and checking accounts as well as savings deposits. After the European Central Bank has now raised the key interest rate, the issue of negative interest rates should have been resolved. However, it remains that customers were wrongly charged, as the Frankfurt Regional Court found.
Commerzbank had charged new customers so-called credit fees on savings deposits from 50,000 euros. The Hamburg Consumer Center sued against this, considering this practice to be illegal. The Frankfurt Regional Court shared this view. It ruled that the corresponding clauses on custody fees were inadmissible because they unreasonably disadvantaged customers. The charging of negative interest rates contradicted the legal model of savings deposits, the court found. It is stipulated that customers entrust their money to the bank and receive interest for it, not the other way around. By charging custody fees, the bank unjustly shifts operating costs onto the customers, the Frankfurt Regional Court explained.
Furthermore, the clauses also violated the transparency requirement, as they were “hidden” only in a footnote and not offered to the customer as a separate deposit model, allowing them to make a decision. The clauses are therefore inadmissible and Commerzbank has wrongly charged negative interest rates.
Similar to the Frankfurt Regional Court, the regional courts of Berlin and Düsseldorf have already ruled. Customers have a good chance, according to case law, to reclaim wrongly charged negative interest rates from the banks.
Lawyers experienced in banking law advise you on your options.
