Belgians’ regulated saving accounts display a new record, with 266,457 billion euros saved end of May: an absolute record, according to figures published Friday by the National Bank of Belgium (BNB). August 2016 stands as the previous, with a bit more than 265 billion euros lying idle. In the following months, these had melted away, going down to 255 billion euros, several banking institutions having decided to change some categories of accounts into non-regulated saving accounts, so that they could free themselves from the legal minimum interest rate of 0.11% which is imposed on regulated accounts.
In March 2017, the total amount reached 255 billion euros, but since then, the trend is again on the rise, with 262.5 billion euros last April.
The 4 billion increase reaped in May could be explained by the appearance of holiday allowances which some Belgians already receive during that month.
The Brussels Times
