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ECB’s Mersch: Negative Interest Rates Not a Punishment for Retail Savers
The negative interest rates that some banks have started to slap on to large deposits shouldn’t be seen as a punishment for the retail saver, suggested European Central Bank Executive Board member Yves Mersch in remarks Thursday. Mr. Mersch said if banks dump excess deposits with the ECB instead of lending them on to the economy, “then we say, we don’t support this and have set a penalty interest rate.” Negative interest rates “have nothing to do with the normal consumer. It’s not for the individual saver, but rather for larger firms that have a lot of money and aren’t investing it,” he said. The ... (full story)