Credit interest
Credit interest is interest that a bank pays its customers for sight , savings and time deposits accepted in the deposit business .
General
Credit interest is generally paid on all types of bank balances . The credit interest is the price for the transfer of money by the creditors of the bank balance. The higher the credit interest, the more the depositors are encouraged to invest and vice versa. However, the higher the credit interest rate, the higher the risk for the depositors that they may not get their money back in full or not at all; higher interest rates and yields can generally be an indication of the crisis of an individual financial institution. This risk is minimized or completely eliminated in Germany and worldwide by means of deposit insurance .
species
A distinction is made between the three types of deposits, which are graded according to duration or notice period
- Credit interest for sight deposits : Sight deposits are paid no interest at many banks or at most 0.25% p. a.
- Time deposit interest for time deposits : the interest is based on the current money market situation and is paid out with the capital when the investment is due. If there is an automatic extension, the term deposit interest can be capitalized .
- Savings interest is paid on savings deposits of all kinds. In Germany, the reference interest rate is that for savings deposits with a notice period of 3 months ( basic savings interest ).
In the case of other forms of financial investments (bank and savings bank letters and bonds) one does not speak of credit interest, but of interest on loans.
Situation in Germany
height
Until April 1967 there was an interest ordinance in Germany since December 1936, by which the amount of credit interest (for terms of up to 2 ½ years) was fixed, while the debit interest was linked to the discount rate . Credit interest was not subject to the current market situation, but was set administratively.
Since interest rate liberalization, the amount of credit interest depends not only on the general interest rate level but also on the type (sight, time or savings deposits), term of the financial investment, the amount of the financial investment and the bargaining power of the bank customer. Savings interest is usually the highest interest rate of all three types of deposits. The normally large difference in interest rates between debit and credit interest can partly be explained by the fact that the bank balances on which interest is to be paid are fully subject to the minimum reserve requirement of the credit institutions vis-à-vis the ECB . The minimum reserves to be deposited with the central bank by the credit institutions cannot be lent to borrowers and thus reduce the banks' earnings base.
It is sometimes criticized that if the key interest rate were to be lowered, the credit interest rate would be adjusted immediately, while the debit interest rate would remain unchanged for a long time and vice versa.
Online banks tend to pay higher credit interest rates than traditional banks because there is no investment advice and these virtual institutes get by with few staff.
Legal bases
A right of the bank customer to credit interest from savings contracts and other financial investments results from § § 700 Abs. 1, § 488 Abs. 1 BGB. In terms of procedural law, credit interest is an ancillary claim within the meaning of Section 4 Paragraph 1 Clause 2 ZPO to the main claim of the invested capital. According to the BGH , the fact that they were combined with the main claim to form a single claim amount does not change the quality of (mere) secondary claims.
The BGH initially suggested that the terms of savings contracts should be based on the requirements of the Bundesbank, but left the reference interest rate open. He was only of the opinion that the reference interest rate - the change of which determines the cause and amount of an interest rate adjustment - for savings deposits that are not terminated prematurely due to the associated loss of the final premium, should in principle be based on interest rates for comparable long-term savings deposits. A few months later, the Federal Court of Justice demanded that the financial institutions should make the interest rate trend in savings contracts more transparent for customers. In this context, parameters should be selected in terms of material and time that meet the requirement of predictability and controllability of interest rate changes.
Banking
Credit interest paid to the bank customers appears in the income statement of the credit institutions in accordance with Section 29 RechKredV under the position interest expense , provided that it represents an expense with interest in nature.
Others
The difference between credit interest and inflation is called the real interest rate .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rüdiger Leoff, The Effects of Interest Rate Liberalization in Germany , 1973, pp. 17 ff.
- ↑ Deutsche Bundesbank on minimum reserves ( memento of the original dated August 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Zeit-Online of April 14, 2011, By Bankers Grace
- ^ BGH, judgment of November 25, 2004, Az .: III ZR 325/03
- ^ BGH, judgment of April 13, 2010, Az .: XI ZR 197/09
- ↑ BGH, WM 2010, 933 Rn. 22 f.
- ^ BGH, judgment of December 21, 2010, Az .: XI ZR 52/08
- ↑ BGH WM 2010, 933 Rn. 19th
