Higher savings interest rates in other countries probably convinced Dutch households last year to park more of their savings in foreign accounts. At the end of September, a total of 10.5 billion euros in bank deposits of Dutch people were held at banks in other euro countries. That is almost double compared to a year earlier, when the Dutch had 5.6 billion euros in foreign accounts. That reports the Dutch bank Wednesday, based on its own quarterly figures and the figures of the European Central Bank.
At Dutch banks, bank deposits increased much less in the same period. Bank deposits, which include money in savings accounts and checking accounts, increased by 41.3 billion euros, an increase of almost 8 percent. At the end of September, the total Dutch bank balance stood at 556.7 billion euros.
Most money in German accounts
A total of 1.8 percent of the combined bank balance of Dutch households is currently with a foreign bank, half a percentage point more than in the same period last year. Last year, Dutch savers mainly chose countries where savings rates recently rose, such as the Baltic states, Italy and Greece. Interest rates there rise to above 4 percent, while the largest banks in the Netherlands currently pay out a maximum of 1.7 percent.
The Dutch also remain loyal to countries such as Belgium and Germany, which have long been popular destinations for a foreign account. At 2.3 billion euros in absolute amounts, most Dutch savings are still in German accounts. This is followed by Spain and Estonia, both with 1.5 billion euros in Dutch savings.
Parking money abroad is just as safe up to a certain amount as in the Netherlands. All member states of the European Union have agreed that the so-called deposit guarantee scheme offers the same protection in all countries. Per bank, savers up to a savings balance of 100,000 euros per person are protected.
Higher savings interest rates
The domestic and foreign bank balances of all Dutch people together add up to 577.2 billion euros. The Netherlands therefore has the seventh highest bank balance per inhabitant in the European Union. Until recently, Dutch people often left this money in bank accounts, because the interest rate difference between checking accounts and savings accounts was very small.
Now that savings interest rates are rising, with a difference of more than one percentage point, DNB sees that households are increasingly putting this money in savings accounts. Last year, Dutch households moved around 15 billion euros to their savings accounts.
Also read
Savers are not yet leaving the major banks en masse
Reading list