More ABN Amro clients to pay negative interest on savings

From January 1, ABN Amro customers with more than 100,000 euros in savings will be charged negative interest. This means they'll have to pay interest on their savings instead of earning interest. Currently, this only applies to customers with over 150,000 euros in savings, NU.nl reports.

ABN Amro customers will have to pay 0.5 percent interest on the part of their savings that exceed 100,000 euros. The bank said that this still affects only a small portion of its customer base. 95 percent of its customers won't face negative interest after January 1.

According to the bank, the measure is necessary because people are saving more and more. ABN Amro, and other banks, have to keep part of their customers' savings at the European Central Bank (ECB), and they have to pay interest on this. The more money ABN Amro customers save, the more money the bank has to keep at ECB and the more interest the bank has to pay. The bank passes part of those costs on to customers.

ING already lowered its negative interest threshold to 100,000 euros.