Credit Suisse to charge for corporate accounts

The decision comes after the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced last week that it planned to cut its reference interest rate to minus 0.75 percent.

The cut, to take effect on Thursday, is designed to discourage money traders from buying Swiss francs.

In light of these developments Credit Suisse will be charging a commission on the assets of institutional clients as well as large companies, bank spokeswoman Daniela Häsler told the SDA news agency, confirming information published by the SonntagsZeitung weekly.

The measure will not affect small and medium-sized companies nor private individuals.

Credit Suisse has not indicated the level of the commission to be charged and said that individual clients would be informed separately.

Last month, the SNB said it planned in January to bring in a negative interest rate for large institutional account holders of minus 0.25 percent.

On Thursday last week it cut this further to 0.75 percent while abandoning support for the euro-franc exchange floor of 1.20.

The negative interest rate is meant to dampen enthusiasm among money traders for holding francs.

Major banks in Switzerland have said they don’t plan to charge small savers a fee for their deposits.