The new one-year state bond, which offers a much higher interest rate (of 3.30% gross) than that of most savings accounts, is off to a flying start: at 09:00, more than €177 million had already been registered.
From Thursday, it is possible to subscribe to the new state bonds, with a net yield of 2.81% after paying tax on the returns. People can register at most banks, but also directly at the Debt Agency, which issues the bonds.
The first registrations with the Agency's Ledgers service – the treasury service where people can register directly – took place a minute after midnight, and there already were 4,659 by 09:00 on Thursday morning, for an amount of €177 million.
"A smooth start," Jean Deboutte, director at the Debt Agency, told Belga News Agency.
Stimulating competition
With the state bond, Federal Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem hoped to encourage the banks to raise interest rates on saving accounts by competing directly with them, and it seemed to have worked.
On Tuesday, the Argenta bank – which is not offering the state bonds – became the first one to announce that it was launching a high-yield term account for one year and one for three years. The one-year term account has the same net yield as the state bond: 2.81%.
Not long after, Axa, Deutsche Bank and Beobank followed and also offered higher interest rates on a term account: clients can now also get as much or more return than the 2.81% of the state bond.
Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem. Credit: Nicolas Maeterlinck / Belga
While Axa's offer is exactly the same as Argenta's, Deutsche Bank even offers a higher net return (of 2.87%) than the state bond. However, to get that, clients must put at least €100,000 on their term account.
Finally, Beobank also offers a one-year term account that yields more than the state bond, De Tijd reports. The net return on that account is 2.835%. The offer is valid until 1 September and there is no minimum amount required.
With these new formulas, banks hope to lure clients who are interested in the state bonds to their own products.
To be able to compete with the state bonds, however, banks must pay a higher gross interest. Clients have to pay a tax of 30% on the interest of term accounts: on the interest of 4.01% that Argenta and Axa pay, 2.81% ultimately remains for the clients.
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But for the state bond, the government decided on a one-time halving of that tax (to just 15%), leading to the bonds having a lower gross interest rate than Argenta and Axa, for example, VRT reports. To arrive at a net yield of 2.81%, the government must offer a gross yield of 3.30%.
Banks have denounced this tax cut as unfair. KBC CEO Johan Thijs spoke of "distortion of competition," but Van Peteghem stressed that the intention is precisely to stimulate competition through the state bond.
