	west german banks slowly cutting key savings rates west german commercial banks are cautiously cutting key savings and lending rates banking sources said the cuts follow nearly two months after the bundesbank reduced leading  rates far longer than the usual interim period a deutsche bank ag dbkg f spokesman said it is cutting leading savings rate for private customers on a regional basis by percentage points to two pct dresdner bank ag drsd f and commerzbank ag cbkg f have initiated similar moves bank fuer gemeinwirtschaft ag bkfg f cut rates pct generally the delay was partly due to commercial banks desire to gauge customer reaction to a similar move by regional savings banks a fall in customer savings because of lower rates could reduce cheap refinancing available to banks forcing them to draw down relatively expensive funds from other sources one economist at the german banking association said but the volume of savings funds may not be substantially undercut by lower savings rates because many customers are parking funds in savings accounts in the hope they can reinvest them at higher yields in the future he said he said this may conflict with bundesbank aims to move more funds from relatively short term deposits to longer dated securities to reduce strong growth in its central bank money supply aggregate the aggregate showed annualized growth of a provisional pct in february against the fourth quarter of last year unchanged from january the growth rate was outside the expanded target range of three to six pct few banks have so far reduced lending rates to private customers though lending rates for corporate customers are beginning to decline reuter 
