Dutch dodging negative interest rates with foreign bank accounts

More and more Netherlands residents have a foreign savings account. This was reported by financial comparison site Geld.nl based on its own research. In recent months, in particular, foreign banks active in the Netherlands have seen their products become more popular. According to Geld.nl, this is because they offer a relatively high interest rate.

"If you look at the savings accounts, the top five with the highest interest rates are all accounts from foreign banks," said expert Amanda Bulthuis of Geld.nl in an explanation. She pointed out that Netherlands residents built up a lot of savings during the coronavirus pandemic and foreign banks are an attractive alternative for this money. At various Dutch banks, savers now pay negative interest above a certain amount in savings.

According to Geld.nl, saving with banks from another European Union country is just as safe as saving with a Dutch bank. "They are also covered by a deposit guarantee system that is comparable to that in the Netherlands," said Bulthuis. "These foreign banks are all healthy, but if they do go bankrupt, your savings up to 100,000 euros are protected there too."

In 2008, the Icelandic savings bank Icesave went bankrupt, luring savers with high interest rates. The last Dutch savers had to wait more than seven years for their balances to be repaid. This was due to political haggling and the difficult settlement of the bankruptcy of Landsbanki, the parent company of Icesave.