2023-07-04 17:17:00
These savings account interest rates have recently been raised at many banks. Major financial institutions offer rates that are around 1%. The pressure of the political world, the media opinions of economists and the conditions of the market of interest are not foreign to it. On the left, however, it is felt that this is still not enough.
“We are not going to give up. We will continue tomorrow and the next few weeks to fight to ensure that interest rates rise to protect citizens who have put money aside”, declares Gilles Vanden Burre. For the leader of the Ecolo group, the response from government authorities is clearly unsatisfactory. “Politically, what Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem and Secretary of State for Consumer Protection Alexia Bertrand are telling us is that they don’t intend to do anything. But we cannot conclude that there is political immobility.”
The Minister of Finance will offer a one-year state bond to “get closer to the best savings product on the market”
The ministers pointed out that several smaller banks were offering higher interest rates. An answer that does not satisfy environmentalists who claim that the small saver cannot easily change banks to find the best interest rate.
At Ecolo, we are asking the government to pass a law that would force Belgian banks to link savings rates to those of the European Central Bank (ECB). The Greens demand that the delta between these two banks not exceed 2%. Currently, the rate at the ECB is 3.5%. “At the four main banks (KBC, ING, Belfius, BNB), the rate is approaching 1%. For us, it should be 1.5%.”
The PS and Vooruit have also called for more state intervention to force banks to raise interest rates. PS group leader Ahmed Laaouej recalled that the state had saved the banking institutions during the last crisis in 2008. “You are with the banks in a relationship that is intended to be consensual. What is expected of you, Madam and Mr. Ministers, is that you protect the citizens.
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Obviously, in this country, the bankers rule the roost.”
The reluctance of Minister Van Peteghem to want to intervene with the banks earned the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Marco Van Hees (PTB), this sardonic comment: “Obviously, in this country, it is the bankers who make the law. What did the minister do? He wrote them a letter.”
An idea that does not appeal to the right
On the right, the proposals of the left hardly appeal. “Playing the bank instead of banks, it’s really not a good idea,” nuanced Benoît Piedbœuf, head of the MR group. Of the 20 billion disbursed by the State to save the banks in 2008, the Liberal states that we “have made solid capital gains” on it since then.
The rest of the discussion will be held on Wednesday in parliament. Ecolo is calling for a hearing of economic experts who are, in their eyes, closer to the people, such as Financité and Test-Achats. The party will also propose the establishment of a protected savings account, the first tranche of 10,000 euros of which would benefit from a particularly advantageous savings rate.
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