After ING, Belfius is now launching a war to recover the Belgians’ money that went into government bonds. Belfius is the second major Belgian bank to offer 3.80% on a one-year term deposit account. This is reported by “De Tijd”.
Belfius will propose three specific offers to try to recover its share of the 17.9 billion that moved from the big banks to the one-year government bond issued in September 2023, the bank announced on Friday at a press conference. Belfius will thus offer term accounts with a duration of six months or one year with a gross rate of 3.80% (2.66% net). This offer, available from September 2, will however only be valid for new money, i.e. money that was not already in the bank’s accounts.
Belfius did not initially plan to launch a specific product to recover the money from the government bond, but intended to rely on its existing offers. “The decision was difficult to make, but we had to react to market events,” said Olivier Onclin, Director of Retail, Private and Business Banking at Belfius. The bank had to react in particular to the launch by ING of a term account with a gross interest rate of almost 4%.
A one-year “social impact” bond will also be offered with an annual net yield of 2.17% (3.10% gross). The money raised will be used to finance specific local projects such as schools, hospitals or care homes.
Finally, two-year structured bonds with a gross yield of 4% in the first year will also be issued. The one-year government bond launched in September 2023 attracted more than half a million people, who invested a total of 21.896 billion euros. With the maturity of the bond, this money, plus 2.81% net interest, will be back in circulation.
This article is originally published on 7sur7.be
