Credit Suisse will start charging wealthy clients with large cash deposits in Swiss francs, the latest Swiss bank to pass on negative interest rates to customers. Individual and business customers will be charged a rate of -0.75per cent on cash balances above 2 million Swiss francs (US$2.02 million), Switzerland's second-biggest lender said. Balances of less than 2 million francs will be unaffected.
Switzerland's central bank announced Friday it had suffered a loss of 50.1 billion francs ($51 billion, 47 billion Euros) in the first half of the year, down on the 16.1 billion francs in profit logged for the same period a year earlier.
The Swiss franc soared as much as 30% in chaotic trade after the central bank abandoned the cap on the currency's value against the Euro. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said the cap, introduced in September 2011, was no longer justified. It also cut a key interest rate from -0.25% to -0.75%, raising the amount investors pay to hold Swiss deposits.