MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's biggest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo <ISP.MI> has no plan to apply negative rates to customer deposits, Chairman Gian Maria Gros-Pietro said on Tuesday.
European banks are grappling with the consequences of the European Central Bank's September decision to cut its key deposit rate further into negative territory.
Following in the tracks of some European rivals, Italy's top bank UniCredit <CRDI.MI> has said it will from next year apply negative interest rates to deposits exceeding 1,000,000 euros, unless customers opt for alternative investments.
"It's not something we've considered, we are doing nothing of the kind," Gros-Pietro said on the sidelines of an event in Milan.
Some Italian banks, including Intesa, in recent years have raised fees on some current accounts blaming the ECB's ultra-low interest rates.
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Valentina Za)
