Vivaldi divided over savings rate: to intervene or not?
May 23, 2023 at 12:51 pm
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National Bank Governor Pierre Wunsch is stoking the savings rate debate again. But Vivaldi is divided.
The National Bank and its governor Pierre Wunsch are getting involved in the debate over a higher savings rate. Experts have been pointing out for months that savings rates are rising much more slowly than lending rates, all the while banks are getting higher and higher interest rates when they themselves park their money at the National Bank. This makes the banks , the critics claim.
The French-speaking liberal Wunsch seems to pick up on that: he repeats his earlier call that the interest rate on a savings account should be more in line with market rates. This can be read as an exhortation to major banks to raise their savings rates a bit anyway.
By the way, Belgians are hardly making the switch to niche banks offering higher interest rates at the moment, according to figures published in De Tijd and Le Soir this morning.
At the government level, the topic is also the focus of a more ideological discussion: should we and start imposing a mandatory minimum interest rate, among other things, or not?
Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter (Groen) plans to put a proposal by MP Dieter Van Besien (Groen) on the government table. And also Vooruit is pushing in that direction, to start forcing banks to raise their interest rates on savings accounts.
And also Pierre-Yves Dermagne (PS) pushes the issue in Le Soir today: "It is not normal to raise interest rates on mortgage loans sharply, but not on savings." In doing so, he points to the fact that those mortgage loans are already around 4 percent today.
Thus, the Flemish Liberals, with Prime Minister De Croo in the lead, seem to be the only ones who really do not want such an intervention in the market. In doing so, they point to the Bpost dossier "and what happens if the government gets too involved." Earlier, Secretary of State for Consumer Protection Alexia Bertrand (Open Vld) spoke of an "ultimate means" to start imposing that mandatory minimum interest rate.
But the liberals are divided. Because the MR also has ears for such a minimum rate: immediately perhaps the reason .
Incidentally, yesterday there was the annual meeting of Ackermans & van Haaren, the holding company where the Bertrand family is major owner, and Alexia Bertrand was director until last year. That holding company owns two banks: Delen Private Bank and Bank Van Breda. A level-headed shareholder there wanted to know what the impact would be, if a mandatory savings rate were to be introduced. CEO Piet Dejonghe talked about "a delicate balance between deposits and loans," for each bank. "It is dangerous to force banks to raise interest rates," he said.
National Bank, formerly Alrafah Microfinance Bank, is a Palestine-based company that operates in the banking and finance sectors. The Bank is primarily engaged in small project financing activities, and offers its services through its main office, as well as five branches located in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Dora and Jineen. The Bank is active in two business segments: Personal and Corporate banking, and Treasury. The Personal and Corporate banking segment is structured into two divisions, the Personal banking division offers current personal accounts, savings and deposit accounts, credit cards, loans and mortgages, and the Corporate banking division is engaged in the provision of loans, trade finance and deposits to companies and government bodies. The Treasury segment provides services related to trade chambers, financial market and foreign currency exchange.
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