Consumer advocates are demanding more for customers

The institutes would only do justice to their statutory mandate to promote saving if they offered risk-free investment opportunities, said Philipp Wendt, Executive Director of the Hesse Consumer Advice Centre: “These investment opportunities must (…) bear positive interest. Negative interest – so-called custody fees – or an overnight interest rate of zero percent do not meet this requirement.” The consumer advocates demand that savings banks “accept deposits from consumers in the amount of the statutory deposit guarantee and pay interest on them”.