Florian Friedrich Korte

It was in principle permissible to charge custody fees – also known as negative interest rates – on current accounts, but the specific clauses used in this case were non-transparent and therefore invalid, the BGH found in its ruling (link in German). Due to the low interest rate policy of the European Central Bank, it was common practice for many banks and savings banks for years to charge custody fees when customers accumulated large sums of money in their accounts.