A bank lending money to the Greek government for 10 years these days would get an annual interest rate of about 1.4%. Lending to Italy for the same period of time would fetch a yearly 1.2%.
To lend money to Germany, the Netherlands or France, however, the bank would have to pay the recipient government for the privilege of buying its bonds. That is the meaning and the beauty of negative interest rates, where the lender pays the borrower, as the price of putting its money in safe hands.
