As of 1 October 2022, customers will no longer pay negative interest.
FAQs about negative interest on your euro account
This depends on which balance tier you fall in. In the current situation, negative interest is charged on the total balance held in the name of a single legal entity or natural person. The balances in all business payment and savings accounts within your company are added together.
If you and your company are separately registered with us, we will treat you and your company as separate clients and your balance tiers will be calculated separately.
The bank can determine what interest rate is applicable above a certain balance. This results in balance tiers. The interest rates and the balance tiers are not fixed. The bank may change these at any time. For the current interest rates and balance tiers, go to abnamro.nl/creditgeld.
A balance tier can also apply to all balances in your payment and savings accounts as well as all payment and/or savings accounts held in your name together with co-account holder(s). We call this the total balance.
If a balance is held with co-account holder(s), each co-account holder is assigned an equal portion of that balance for the calculation of his or her total balance.
- Bank Guarantee Cover Account
The Bank Guarantee Cover Account is a savings account exclusively for moneys that serve as security for a bank guarantee. The balance in this account is blocked until the bank guarantee expires. - G-Account
The G-Account is only allowed to be used to make tax and social security payments to the tax authorities or sub-contractors.
| Client ABC B.V. | Balance | Amount included in negative interest calculation |
| Business Account | € 250,000 | € 250,000 |
| Overdraft Facility | € -250,000 | € -250,000 |
| Business Savings Account 1 | € 2,000,000 | € 2,000,000 |
| Business Savings Account 2 | € 2,000,000 | € 2,000,000 |
| € 4,000,000 |
The balance on which negative interest is calculated is
€ 4,000,000 - € 100,000 = € 3,900,000
| Client ABC B.V. | Balance | Amount included in negative interest calculation |
| Business Account | € 600,000 | € 600,000 |
| Guarantee account* | € -1,000,000 | 0 |
| Business Savings Account | € 2,000,000 | € 2,000,000 |
| G-account* | € 500,000 | 0 |
| Bank Guarantee Cover Account* | € 1,000,000 | 0 |
| € 2,600,000 |
The balance on which negative interest is calculated is
€ 2,600,000 - € 100.000 = € 2,500,000
* Excluded from negative interest
There are a number of reasons why we charge negative interest and have decided to lower the threshold for negative interest:
- The euro deposit rate, which applies within Europe, is currently negative. This is intended to stimulate the economy, because negative central bank interest rates ultimately lead to borrowers paying less interest on their loans and mortgages.
- Savings in the Netherlands have increased in recent years. Normally, we lend most of these savings to borrowers in the form of loans and mortgages. The money that we currently have 'left over' is deposited with the European Central Bank (ECB). We pay negative interest on that amount.
- As a result of the low/negative market interest rates, we have seen a sharp drop in our interest income from loans and mortgages in recent years.
In the case of specific circumstances, such as developments in the money and capital markets, the bank can charge negative interest.
The interest rate for clients turns negative if the ECB rate remains below 0% for a prolonged period of time. ABN AMRO wants to spare clients with a limited total balance in their accounts insofar as possible. This is the reason for introducing balance tiers per client.
Interest rates are driven by the interest rate policy pursued by the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB has consistently reduced the European deposit facility rate, which means that Dutch banks pay high costs for placing savings balances with the ECB. The bank is obliged to place part of its balances with the ECB.
We have charged large parties negative interest under tailor-made arrangements for some years now. At the beginning of 2020, we informed clients about the introduction of negative interest rates as of 1 April 2020. At present, we charge negative interest when the total balance of your current and savings accounts is above €100,000. The reason is that money in the capital market is cheaper than savings, partly because of the low interest rate environment. Banks incur costs to place surplus savings.
The future is hard to predict, so we will need to continuously reassess the situation. We make no statements about possible reductions (nor are we allowed to do this).
Yes, any current account debit balances that exist within the same company are included in the total calculation. In such situations, for reasons of working capital management we advise you to keep your credit funds in a current account instead of in a separate savings account, where possible.
You pay negative interest for a ‘calendar quarter’, i.e.:
- quarter 1: January, February, March
- quarter 2: April, May, June
- And so on.
We will charge the interest in the month following a calendar quarter. We do this in the second half of that month (January, April, July, October).
The negative interest will be charged to your company’s main account.
By ensuring that the total credit balance in your company’s accounts remains below € 100,000.
Clearly, as indicated by the ECB, you may also consider making any desired investments or balancing your longer-term working capital and your outstanding debts as efficiently.
We have chosen a different form of calculation. After all, it might be possible that a client forgets to transfer a balance from an account that exceeds the balance tier to an account that is still below the balance tier. Paying negative interest, in this example, would be unfair in our opinion.
By calculating the negative interest on a client level, all accounts belong to the same balance tier and will be charged proportionately.
If you owe the bank negative interest for a particular quarter, you will be sent your negative interest statement at the end of the month following that quarter (i.e. at the end of April, July, October and January).
Online statement
To view the statement:
- Log in to Internet Banking or the ABN AMRO app.
- Go to the Self service tab
- Choose 'Your products & services'-> "Download your annual statements and summaries".
- In the drop down menu you can choose the type of the overview. Only the owner of the account has insight and can download the statement Negative Interest.
We will notify you via bankmail as soon as the statement is available in Internet Banking for Business.
Physical copy
If you have opted to receive physical copies of all your statements, you can also expect to receive a physical copy of the negative interest statement. We will send it to you by post. The statement will also be available to you in digital format in Internet Banking for Business. There will be no changes for you if you use Access Online rather than Internet Banking for Business. In that case, we will continue to send you physical copies of your statements, including the negative interest statement.
FAQs about negative interest on your Foreign Currency Account
You pay negative interest on the entire balance of the Foreign Currency Account for which the base rate is negative in the currency concerned. The interest rate always depends on the current benchmark interest rate for that specific currency. For example: if the benchmark interest rate of your Foreign Currency Account is -0.25%, you will pay 0.25% on the entire credit balance. If the interest rate is 0% or higher, the credit interest rate is established in line with the current conditions.
You will pay negative interest per quarter, i.e.:
- Quarter 1: January, February, March.
- Quarter 2: April, May, June.
- Quarter 3: July, August, September.
- Quarter 4: October, November, December.
Each quarter runs from the last day of the month to the last day of the month, for example from 31 December to 31 March.
We always charge interest in the month following a calendar quarter: in early January, April, July and October.
The negative interest will be settled in the Foreign Currency Account.
You can find the benchmark interest rate for Foreign Currency on our overview page.