This is not surprising according to them. Even with previous interest rate hikes by the ECB, it took some time for consumers to receive more interest on their savings again. However, the effect of ECB policy on savings rates in the Netherlands appears for the moment to be more limited and weaker than in other countries.
“A possible explanation for the more limited effect on savings rates in the Netherlands is that the Dutch banking sector is relatively concentrated,” DNB experts write in an article on the website of the economists magazine ESB. ‘Furthermore, household savings in the Netherlands are high compared to other euro area countries. It gives Dutch banks room to raise savings interest less than banks in other euro countries.’
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Another factor that may play a role is that mortgage interest rates in the Netherlands have been fixed for a relatively long time. ‘As a result, bank lending interest rates are also changing more slowly than in other countries. This may play a role in Dutch banks considering raising interest rates on savings more slowly.’
Financial comparison site Geld.nl recently noted that smaller banks in the Netherlands are increasingly raising interest rates on savings to 2% or more, while interest rates at the top three banks remain relatively low. “Many people save with these banks anyway. So they don’t necessarily have to offer higher interest rates to attract enough savings,” said Amanda Bulthuis, money and insurance expert at the comparison site, about savings interest rates at major banks.
He believes that major banks are not yet going that far in raising interest rates on savings because they have been providing long-term loans and low-interest mortgages in recent years. “Those loans are still ongoing and so the banks make little money, which means there’s also less room to raise interest rates on savings.”