The Supreme Court has recently dealt with the question of negative interest rates in three decisions.

 

The Supreme Court has now finally determined that under no circumstances can the lender be obliged to pay interest.

In general, during the course of a loan agreement, the borrower does not expect to receive interest payments from the lender, but rather it is agreed that the borrower has to pay the interest.

 

The lender’s obligation to pay interest due to the current negative interest rates, as raised by some authors in the literature, would mean that the borrower does not have to provide any service – payment of interest – for the transfer of the loan value, but the bank does have to provide the borrower becomes liable to pay.

 

The Supreme Court has recently dealt with the question of negative interest rates in three decisions (4 Ob 60/17b; 1 Ob 4/17w; 10 Ob 13/17k).

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