Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus (magic), an exclamation used by magicians, usually the magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change.

:(

Switzerland's National Bank (SNB) will bring in a negative interest rate cutting the value of large sums of money left on deposit in the country.

The Bank is imposing a rate of minus 0.25% on "sight deposits" - a form of instant access account - of more than 10m Swiss francs ($9.77m).

A negative rate means depositors pay to lend the bank their money.

- 0.25%...

Minus?

Strange image:

This was confirmed by the Swiss Bergier commission in 1998 which concluded that the SNB received US$440 million in gold from Nazi sources, of which US$316 million is estimated to have been looted.

Plus?

Or minus? 

Gold->Geld->Gold->Gelda

The European Central Bank (ECB) also introduced negative interest rates, albeit for very different reasons.

The ECB wants to keep money out of its banks (:))), not because it wants to reduce the value of the euro but because it wants money flowing round the eurozone countries to boost investment and spending.

Germany's Commerzbank also recently introduced negative interest rates for bigger corporate clients, but it said that was linked to the ECB's negative rates policy.