In accordance with the Interest Rates Act (340/2002), the reference rate is 0.5% for the period 1 July – 31 December 2013. The penalty interest rate for the same period is thus 7.5% pa (under section 4 of the Act, the reference rate plus seven percentage points).
Due to an amendment to the Interest Rates Act effective as from 16 March 2013, the Bank of Finland also announces another penalty interest rate applicable to commercial contracts. This penalty interest rate is 8.5% pa (under section 4 a of the Act, the reference rate plus eight percentage points). The higher penalty interest rate referred to in section 4 a of the Act is applied to payments made by enterprises to other enterprises or by authorities to enterprises.
Under the Interest Rates Act, the reference rate used in defining the penalty rate is the interest rate applied by the European Central Bank to the last main refinancing operation prior to the first calendar day of the half-year in question and rounded up to the nearest one-half percentage point. Such reference rate is effective for the following six-month period.
For further information, please contact the Bank of Finland's Communications, phone +358 10 195 701.