A Danish bank has launched the world's first negative interest rate mortgage &ndash handing outloans to homeowners where the charge is minus 0.5% a year.
一家丹麥銀行推出了世界首例負利率按揭貸款––房貸年利率為-0.5%。
Negative interest rates effectively mean that a bank pays a borrower to take money off theirhands, so they pay back less than they have been loaned.
負利率的意思是，銀行付錢讓借貸者使用資金，貸款人還的錢比借的錢還少。
Jyske Bank, Denmark's third largest, has begun offering borrowers a 10-year deal at -0.5%, while another Danish bank, Nordea, says it will begin offering 20-year fixed-rate deals at 0% and a 30-year mortgage at 0.5%.
Under its negative mortgage, Jyske said borrowers will make a monthly repayment as usual &ndash but the amount still outstanding will be reduced each month by more than the borrower haspaid.
日德蘭銀行稱，申請負利率貸款的借貸者將如常支付月供，但余下貸款每月扣除額將多于每月還款額。
"We don't give you money directly in your hand, but every month your debt is reduced by morethan the amount you pay," said Jyske's housing economist, Mikkel H?egh.
The mortgage is possible because Denmark, as well as Sweden and Switzerland, has seenrates in money markets drop to levels that turn banking upside-down.
H?egh said Jyske Bank is able to go into money markets and borrow from institutionalinvestors at a negative rate, and is simply passing this on to its customers.
But the flipside is that savers will see nothing paid in interest on their deposits &ndash and may alsosuffer as they go negative.
不過有利就有弊，儲戶將發現自己的存款毫無收益，如果變成負利率的話存款甚至會減少。
In Switzerland, the bank UBS last week told its wealthy clients that it would introduce a chargeof 0.6% a year if they deposited more than 500,000 euros.
In Denmark, interest rates on savings deposited in Jyske have already fallen to zero. Nowbanks in Denmark are thinking of following Switzerland and moving to negative rates ondeposits.
在丹麥，日德蘭銀行的存款利率已經降到了0?，F在丹麥的銀行正考慮跟隨瑞士的腳步，對存款實行負利率。
"Right now, for deposits we don't have a negative interest rate. But discussions are ongoing atthe very highest level. It's just that no bank here wants to be the first mover into negativedeposit rates," said H?egh.
While the Bank of England's base rate is 0.75%, and the European Central Bank's main rate iszero, in Denmark (which is not in the eurozone) the equivalent rate is -0.4%.
In reality, the Jyske mortgage borrower in Denmark is likely to end up paying back a littlemore than they borrowed, as there are still fees and charges to pay to compensate the bankfor arranging the deal, even when the nominal rate is negative.
