In a move to ease the effects of the surging Swiss franc, Polish banks with the greatest franc exposure agreed to pass on negative interest rates in Switzerland to borrowers. This follows the decision by the National Bank of Switzerland to push the country’s interest down by 0.5 percent to -0.75. Polish banks have fought to protect their margins in the past, but sub-zero rates now appear unavoidable. “All lenders have accepted LIBOR below zero, as not doing so would be a market that risks symmetry breaking down, which could not be accepted by the financial stability committee, as the risks should be equal to all market participants. Thus all of those agreements should be renegotiated,” Polish Finance Minister Mateusz Szczurek said following a meeting with financial stability committee.
