Initial moves by the banking world to increase interest rates on savings accounts have drawn a positive response from Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.
Doubling down on an earlier reaction in parliament, Prime Minister De Croo stressed on Tuesday that if the market is not working as it should, “we will make it work."
Belfius announced a rate hike last week, followed by Keytrade, Deutsche Bank and now Vdk. “I can see that there is movement,” Prime Minister De Croo commented.
“Consumers need to realise how much power they have: they can make choices and move their savings to banks that offer a higher interest rate. This is something that can be done easily,” he told the House Committee on Tuesday in response to questions from Peter De Roover (N-VA) and Marco Van Hees (PTB).
However, in the eyes of the Workers Party of Belgium, PTB, the movement is still very timid, since the European Central Bank raised its key interest rates several months ago.
On the left, several parties are calling for greater state intervention. “How many months are you going to wait?” Van Hees asked. “The facts are stubborn: the market is not working.”
The Prime Minister’s arguments also did convince the ecologists. “The fact that it’s such a hassle to change banks is precisely why competition isn’t working,” Ecolo-Groen parliamentarian Dieter Van Besien argued.
The Greens, like the Socialists, have tabled a bill imposing a protected rate, equivalent to the rate on Belgian government bonds, on the first €10,000 of savings.
