Sep 11, 2023 at 1:19 p.m
Dutch savings banks often offer significantly higher interest rates in Germany than to savers in the Netherlands. In Belgium, savings interest rates are much lower than in our country.
In brief
Dutch savings banks offer higher interest rates in Germany than in the Netherlands, but lower interest rates in Belgium. Dutch savings banks offer higher interest rates abroad to compete with domestic banks. Belgian savings interest rates are very low. The government is critical of this.
For example, ING’s Dutch customers have to make do with 1.25 percent interest on their savings account. In Germany, savers receive 3.5 percent interest, as calculated by comparison site Geld.nl.
One reason for the high interest rates is that many more different savings banks are active in Germany than in the Netherlands. “Banks therefore have more competition and must therefore do more to attract savers through high interest rates,” explains Amanda Bulthuis of Geld.nl.
Foreign banks also need to offer higher interest rates to convince savers to save at a foreign bank. “In Germany we are seen as a foreign bank,” says Richard Leijnse of investment bank NIBC.
“And just as Dutch savers do not just save at a foreign bank, German savers do not just do that either. We therefore regularly have to offer a slightly higher interest rate than domestic banks.”
Savings interest rates are lower in Belgium
In Belgium, savings interest rates are much lower than in the Netherlands. The basic interest rate that savers receive at, for example, ING, bunq and Triodos Bank is more than half lower than the interest rate that Dutch savers receive at these banks.
Foreign banks often have slightly higher interest rates there too. Because domestic savings interest rates are much lower, foreign banks also have to offer much lower interest rates to exceed them.
The Belgian government is therefore very critical of Belgian savings banks. “The government thought: we have to do something to get the market moving. That is why the State is now issuing State vouchers with which residents can secure their money with the Belgian government for a year at 2.81 percent interest,” says Bulthuis.
Many Belgians have therefore withdrawn their savings from the banks. This puts extra pressure on Belgian banks to increase their savings rates. It is not yet possible to say whether that will help. Belgian banks have not yet increased their interest rates.
Image: Getty
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2023-09-11 11:19:28
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