YEREVAN, October 21. / ARKA /. Several global banks have begun charging large customers to deposit their money in euros, a rare move that could have costly implications for investors and companies that do business in -Europe, according to news reports.

The actions are driven by policies from the European Central Bank, which in June became the largest central bank to impose a negative interest rate on deposits — meaning banks are paying to park their money with the ECB.

The effort is designed to encourage banks to instead use that money to lend. Now, instead of paying customers interest on their euro accounts, as they have done in the past, some banks have started charging them.

Bank of New York Mellon recently started charging 0.2 per cent on euro deposits, the bank said on Friday, and Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase have also started charging clients, insiders say.

HSBC will also soon start charging customers with more than about €10 million ($14.5m) in deposits, according to one insider. An HSBC spokesman said the bank was “monitoring the situation” regarding negative interest rates.-0-