In theory, it could thus have led to the bank being paid for borrowing money and at the same time paying for having its money at the bank. In practice, the interest rate we receive on our mortgages and other loans from the banks is still slightly higher than the Goodbank’s policy rate, as the banks charge for their services and place a difference on the difference.

After all, the Goodbank has, after all, begun to raise interest rates and the question that many people ask is how long until we will have a negative interest rate. For many, it is mainly the cost of the mortgage that will change if the interest rate goes up. Then it is good to be prepared and review the interest rates before it goes away too much.

Minus interest creates cost for the bank


Minus interest rates are something that most clearly affects the banks. While a low policy rate may be reflected in low mortgage rates, it would also have arisen if the policy rate had been low (down to 0%) and thus not at a negative level. For the banks, the minus interest rate means that they have to pay to have their surplus with the Goodbank. A surplus that is either placed with the Goodbank or in the Goodbank’s certificate.

In 2015, this surplus was about 50-70 billion monthly. A negative interest rate creates a situation where the banks have to pay to invest capital with the Goodbank. The minus interest rate was introduced for the first time in Sweden in 2015 and it was then estimated that this would cost the banks about 200 million during that year. ‘

This is how the mortgage rate is affected


The banks’ mortgage interest rates are mainly affected by their borrowing costs, which are governed by the policy rate. The fixed mortgage rate is also affected by the banks’ view on how the policy rate will change in the future.

If the Goodbank chooses to have a minus interest rate, it is the “longer way back” to interest rates that are historically common. Both the variable and fixed interest rates are therefore very low. As the interest rate level increases, the mortgage rate will also be raised. With a negative interest rate, Sweden has historically had a low mortgage rate for several years.

This is how deposit rates are affected

This is how deposit rates are affected

A clear result of the negative interest rate is that many banks do not give (or extremely low) interest on invested capital. When the minus rate was introduced in 2015, SEB chose to set a minus rate on accounts belonging to their largest customers, which had very large amounts with the bank.

Through this, they had to pay to have money at SEB. However, no bank has introduced a negative interest rate for private individuals. Giving zero percent on a savings account still means a real loss for customers. Most years, Sweden has inflation, which reduces the value of the money. 


Good Finance explains: Minus interest