Crelan and Axa Banque are to update their savings conditions from Monday 17 July, the Crelan group, to which both banks belong, announced on Monday.
Interest rates will thus be revised upwards, in line with what many other banks have announced in recent weeks.
The two banks’ ordinary savings accounts will offer a base rate of 0.45% (+0.10 percentage points) and a loyalty premium of 0.45% (+0.30 percentage points) from next week. For certain other (online) accounts, the rate of this bonus will even reach 0.55%.
The highest-yielding savings accounts are the Horizon Plus at Crelan and the Fidelity plus account at Axa Banque. Their interest rates reach 1.25%, corresponding to a 0.20% base rate and a 1.05% fidelity premium. However, a ceiling of €250,000 applies.
At the beginning of June, Belfius became the first major Belgian bank to announce its intention to increase interest rates on savings accounts with effect from 1 July. Since then, a number of institutions such as Keytrade Bank, Triodos, Deutsche Bank, vdk, and more recently KBC, CBC, Argenta and MeDirect, in particular, had followed suit, before being joined last week by market leader BNP Paribas Fortis.
The announcements came as political pressure increased in May on the banking sector to raise interest rates on savings accounts, and thus keep pace with the rise in key rates by the European Central Bank.
