Popular government bonds largely flowed back to the banks

A net return of 2.81 percent thanks to the reduced withholding tax had attracted private investors en masse to the government bond in September 2023. A year later, that amount of almost 22 billion euros was released again, which prompted the banks to take the necessary commercial actions to attract the money.

On the one hand, only 400 million was reinvested in the new government bond issued on September 16, 2024, according to the NBB. In contrast, the movement in deposits of Belgian households between August and September mainly shows that 18.2 billion euros went to deposits with a fixed term, term deposits. And 5 billion euros flowed into savings bonds.

A side note: the attractive rates offered by the banks also attracted deposits that were already parked in a regulated savings account or current account. This concerns 4.4 billion and 2.8 billion euros respectively.

In one year, fixed-term deposits increased from 11 percent to 15 percent of Belgian household deposits (+22.3 billion euros). The trend started two years ago. Furthermore, the competition between banks, under the influence of the popular government bond, is visible in the interest rate on term accounts: between August and September the weighted average interest rate rose by 0.34 percentage points – there was no visible effect on savings accounts.