Update – EU Negative Interest Rate Policy in Cyprus

Further to our recent news provided on January 10 on the EU Negative Interest Rate in Cyprus;

Bank of Cyprus Plc recently announced that it will charge fees on deposit accounts in connection with the EU negative interest rate policy.

The new fees introduced by Bank of Cyprus “Liquidity Fee on EUR deposits” will be applicable to financial institutions such as brokerage firms, Forex, fund managers, and insurance companies as well as state and semi-governmental organisations other than educational institutions like Universities.

The new fee will be applicable from March 2020 and onwards and covers Current, Savings, Instant Access and Sight accounts, Notice Accounts, and Fixed Deposits.

A similar approach is also followed outside of the EU, for example Switzerland launched the negative interest rate policy in 2015 and as recently published by CNN Business there is a suggestion that savers have started looking for alternatives ways to protect their money.

We will have to wait and see how the Negative Interest Rate policy will develop in Cyprus and update you accordingly.