Thursday, April 14, 2016

Negative Rates: How One Swiss Bank Learned to Live in a Subzero World

When Alternative Bank Schweiz moved to charge depositors, it actually gained account holders

ZURICH—Negative interest rates are rattling banks around the world, but one small Swiss lender has learned to stop worrying and lean in.

Alternative Bank Schweiz AG late last year became Switzerland’s first bank to comprehensively pass along negative rates to all of its customers. Violating an almost religious precept in the financial world, ABS informed its clients that they would have to pay a charge of at least 0.125% to maintain .... http://www.wsj.com