[notahacker]

The bank isn't going to pay anyone interest to take out a loan, still less a loan for MAXINT. It still has to cover repayment defaults and make a profit.

But changing the base rate from 0.1% to -0.5% incentivises the banking system to loan to consumers and businesses at lower rates

[mrsuprawsm]

You say that, but this is already happening in some places: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/aug/13/danish-bank-la...

[notahacker]

Interesting, but as there are other charges involved the negative interest rate is a marketing ploy. The examples given on Jyske bank's website involve repaying more than disbursed https://www.jyskebank.dk/bolig/nyheder/realkredit-med-negati...

[Analemma_]

There was an HN discussion about this where several Danes mentioned that these loans still come with assorted fees and taxes which effectively amount to a low, but still positive, interest rate.