Direct bank ING pays 1 percent overnight interest again
Dhe rising interest rates of the central banks are now also noticeable for savers. With the direct bank ING Germany, one of the largest providers in the German market announced rising interest rates on Thursday per diem and fixed deposit announced. Customers who open a new money market account with the bank will now receive 1 percent interest per annum for four months. From December 6, the bank will again pay 0.3 percent on the overnight money for existing customers, and without additional conditions, as CEO Nick Jue emphasized to journalists in Frankfurt.
Many banks have had overnight savings, which has been popular for a long time, in recent years because of the long-lasting phase of negative interest rates European Central Bank (ECB) removed from their range or made unattractive with interest rates at the zero line. “We think the era of zero interest rates is over,” said Jue. The bank could earn more even with the turnaround in interest rates by many central banks, including the ECB, and wants to pass this on to its customers. Until recently, the bank had demanded custody fees, i.e. negative interest, from its customers.
The bank also intends to raise its conditions for fixed-term deposits by 0.3 to 0.5 percent. Depending on the term, she then pays between 1 percent (one year) and 1.8 percent (five years) on savings bonds. In the highly competitive market, these price jumps are likely to have a signaling effect. Only a few weeks ago, Deutsche Bank had already announced more again Interest charges to pay on the fixed deposit.
Interest rates on construction loans raised
After savers had to carry their money to rather exotic banks or to institutes in Malta or Estonia via interest rate platforms in order to get slightly higher interest rates in recent years, more well-known addresses are now being added to the comparison tables. FMH-Finanzberatung currently also lists Consorsbank with an overnight money offer of 0.6 percent for new customers and pbb directly with 0.75 even for existing customers.
On the other hand, ING has also significantly increased its interest rates for construction loans in several steps over the past few months. At the beginning of the year, home builders were still able to finance their projects with the direct bank for ten years at 2 percent, but the bank now takes 4 percent for this. Issuance of construction loans is one of the most important business areas for which the bank uses its customer deposits.
“It’s never happened before that interest rates have risen so quickly,” said Norman Tambach, CFO of ING Germany, with a view to the interest rate turnaround by the central banks. “We have to react to this quickly, otherwise we will make losses.” According to Risk Director Sigrid Kozmisky, ING has not yet seen any signs that the economic slowdown will also cause loan defaults to increase. However, the bank is now becoming more selective in lending, especially in business with small and medium-sized companies.
So far, it has not been observed that customers in the mortgage business can no longer afford follow-up financing because of the increased interest rates. Some banks are now reporting that the mortgage lending business has fallen sharply or has even come to a complete standstill. ING boss Jue said that while his bank was also noticing a significant decline in new business, the total loan volume continued to grow.
