ABN Amro bank has become the first of the big three Dutch banks to scrap interest on savings accounts. The bank had maintained a token interest rate of 0.01% since November, in line with the other banks, but will drop it altogether from April 1.

At the same time, savers with more than €2.5m in savings will pay 0.5% to keep all cash above that sum in their accounts. The bank has some 3,000 private savers and 2,200 companies with reserves of more than €2.5m who are likely to be affected.

Clients were informed about the changes on Monday.

‘With no foreseeable change in the current low interest rate environment, ABN Amro has taken the decision to start charging interest on large deposits effective 1 April, and to update its regular product terms to reflect that,’ the bank said in a statement.

ABN Amro became the first of the three big Dutch banks to lower the interest paid on one of its savings accounts to almost zero last autumn.

The banks blame European central bank policy for the problem. They are required by law to keep some of their cash at the ECB, and are now being charged to put their money there.

Tridos, which focuses on green and sustainable investments, cut its interest rate to zero a while ago.