NEGATIVE EURIBOR

Few years ago it was unthinkable to imagine a sentence like this. However, the Euribor index in February 2016 is negative (0,008 per cent according to the Bank of Spain).

Euribor is the rate most used for calculating mortgages interests (and other financial products interests). Actually it consists of several indexes and takes into account many complex circumstances. It is the ECB's monetary policy which serves as a guide for this index. This indicates that interest rates will remain low for a long time. The 12-month Euribor closed in 2015 to 0.059 %, which meant the steepest fall of the decade. Some banks glimpsed the possibility that 2016 would be at negative rates, as has happened. For banks means bad news due to the possibility of getting interest margins difficulties.

WILL THE BANK PAY US NEGATIVE EURIBOR?

The question is: Can a consumer/borrower charge the bank for his mortgage?. Some experts believe that it would be difficult to reach those limits. It should have eaten all banking add differential on Euribor 12 months and that the sum of both being negative interest. The Euribor reference should be less than -0.17 % , which today is unthinkable (but so was thinking of a negative Euríbor few years ago). That from the theoretical point of view, because theoretically is not in the spirit of a loan agreement the lender to pay for a loan. At most it should be considered a zero rate. In short, do not expect that the bank will pay us for the Euribor descent.

EURIBOR PLUS

It would be the replacement for the current Euribor. In principle, it is expected to enter into force in July 2016, but this new calculation formula (in theory, more realistic) would not enter into force overnight. It is assumed that this new index would be formed from bank contributions used in actual operations and not on estimated bases.

Spanish