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The RBS banking group has warned 1.3 million customers they could be charged negative interest rates if the Bank of England cuts base rates below zero.
The group, which includes NatWest, wrote to its business and commercial account holders about the potential changes, which mean they could lose money even when they are in credit.
The letter said: "Global interest rates remain at very low levels and in some markets are currently negative.
"Dependent on future market conditions, this could result in us charging on credit balances."
The Bank of England's base rate currently stands at the historically low rate of 0.5%, where it has been for more than seven years - and some economists believe it should be cut further to stimulate the economy.
Source: Sky News
From October 1st, the Dutch bank [ABN Amro] is adjusting its conditions to state that the bank can give negative interest rates to account holders with a business checking or -savings account, ANP reports.
Source: NL Times
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Zz9zZ on Wednesday July 27 2016, @08:27PM
I don't think this is part of some big plan, but in general the strategy is to keep people in debt. There is a reason usury was declared illegal back in the day, and to go biblical it was also why Jesus kicked the money lenders out of the temple. Greedy bastards making a profit by having enough money to lend. The only cost is in hiring thugs to break kneecaps, or senators to pass legislation.
But this story here sounds more like the banks threatening the little people to keep the government from lowering interest rates and hurting the banks profit margin. It is very telling that the banks waited until this point, I presume at 0% a lot of their auto-generating profits stop working so they'll squeeze the money out of their customers. I can't believe that is legally even possible for them to charge negative interest!?
~Tilting at windmills~