No negative interest on most ABN Amro savings accounts

ABN Amro will not implement negative interest on savings accounts with less than 100 thousand euros in them, the bank promised. The bank's interest rate on savings currently stands at 0.01 percent. It can, theoretically, still drop for zero. But most customers will not have to pay to keep their savings at ABN Amro, NOS reports.

"We have decided not to charge negative interest for assets up to EUR 100,000. This commitment means that approximately 95 percent of our customers, accounting for around 40 percent of our deposit file, are exempt from negative interest", ABN Amro said with the presentation of its quarterly figures on Wednesday. The bank made a net profit of 558 million euros in the third quarter.

The bank noticed that customers are worried about negative savings interest, as there has been a lot of discussion on this topic in society and the media, ABN Amro CEO Kees van Dijkhuizen said. The bank therefore decided to implement a deposit guarantee scheme for savings accounts up to 100 thousand euros. "95 percent of our customers are below the 100,000 euros limit and we will not bother them with negative interest in the coming years", Van Dijkhuizen said, according to the broadcaster.

Savings interest at Dutch banks have dropped to nearly zero over the past years, due to the continuing low market interest rate and the negative deposit interest that banks have to pay for cash they store at European central bank ECB.