Image: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER
In the past few days, the debate has revolved around bank profits that are too high, low interest rates on savings and the debit and credit interest on the current account. Yesterday, the banks, which had been caught off guard by the discussion during the hot holiday season, attempted a diversionary maneuver to capture the debate: They want to accommodate borrowers who have encountered payment problems due to the rise in variable interest rates.
The chairman of the banking division in the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) and Erste Group boss Willibald Cernko want to present details in the next few days, he announced on Thursday in a posting on LinkedIn. The manager also pointed out that the current interest rate situation would not change anything for borrowers with fixed interest rates, and reminded them that domestic banks would pass on the higher interest rates relatively well in a European comparison. According to data from the Financial Times, 29 percent of the increases were passed on. It was only higher in Great Britain (43 percent), Luxembourg (36 percent) and France (35) – significantly less in the euro zone or Germany with 20 percent each.
As reported, the Ministry of Social Affairs has commissioned the Association for Consumer Information with a representative action against Bank Austria – because of zero interest on the current account. Experts were critical of the lawsuit’s chances of success. SPÖ and FPÖ are demanding legal intervention, a lawsuit takes too long. Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) saw the latter similarly.
Probably with a view to the bank excess profit tax demanded by the opposition or legal intervention to close the interest rate gap, Cernko wrote, “that we conduct political debates in a level-headed and fact-oriented manner and do not weaken Austria as a business location and its stable and strong banking sector with short-term, populist measures”. .
New round in the political dispute
Economics Minister Martin Kocher (VP) said yesterday in the Mittagsjournal: “I don’t see any excess profits either.” This led to an outraged reaction from FP and SP. SP finance spokesman Jan Krainer urgently recommended Kocher to visit the optician via broadcast, as he did not see the excess profits. FP finance spokesman Hubert Fuchs described Kocher in a broadcast as “anti-citizen and neoliberal”. The minister had “let himself be ‘bagged’ by financial groups that turned out to be winners of the crisis”.
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