savings

ABN Amro will not implement negative interest on savings accounts with less than 100 thousand euros in them, the bank promised. The bank's interest rate on savings currently stands at 0.01 percent. It can, theoretically, still drop for zero. But most customers will not have to pay to keep their savings at ABN Amro, NOS reports.

Dutch between the ages of 20 and 45 who rent a home in the free sector, pay so much on housing costs that they can't afford to build up savings, Rabobank researchers Nic Vrieselaar and Carlijn Prins concluded after surveying over 10 thousand customers that fall in this group, AD reports.

Dutch consumers will start paying interest on their savings accounts in the near future, various analysts told Financieele Dagblad. They describe negative interest rates on savings as an unavoidable future.

The cash that Dutch banks keep and are required to deposit at the European Central Bank currently costs them more than half a billion euros per year, due to the negative deposit interest rate. "Dutch banks together have 138 billion euros in surplus liquidity, and they pay 0.4 percent on that", Elwin de Groot of Rabobank said to FD.

Most Dutch people are not building sufficient financial buffers for a financially healthy future, Rabobank concludes based on a study by Nibud. Only two in five Dutch put money aside for training, income decreases, pensions, or healthcare, ANP reports.

Nibud questioned 2 thousand people for this study. Nearly half of respondents indicated that they are concerned about money matters in the future, yet most do nothing about it. Around a third don't have the money to set aside. But of the two thirds who do have financial room to set money aside, only 39 percent actually do so. 

The number of vacation homes sold in the Netherlands increased by 20 percent last year, according to data the Dutch association of realtors NVM released on Monday. In 2015 the the number of holiday homes sold doubled, NU.nl reports.

According to NVM, the continuing trend can be attributed to the low interest rates. As savings yield hardly anything at the moment, more people choose to invest their money into a second home. 

Dutch bank ING saw its net profits increase to 1.35 billion euros in the third quarter, an increase of 27 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The bank's total income rose by 9 percent to 4.4 billion euros, ING announced on Thursday, ANP reports.

ING granted more loans to consumers and businesses and took in more savings. ING's loans increased by 3.6 billion euros and on balance attracted 2 billion euros in savings. Despite the low interest rates, the bank got "healthy" margins on its loans. 

The recovering Dutch economy is good news for Rabobank. In the first half of this year the bank booked a profit of 1.5 billion euros, an increase of 41 percent compared to last year.

Capital gains tax, the tax on savings and investment, will be decreasing for small savers and increasing for large investments. According to the PvdA, an agreement has been reached with coalition partner VVD on this, but the VVD denies that there is any such agreement, NOS reports

ABN Amro and ING announced a decrease in their savings account interest rates on Friday. The Dutch banks will both drop their rate from one percent to 0.9 percent in the last week of April.

Dutch consumers are very cautious when it comes to using their savings, even when it is more rational to use their savings to pay off debts.

The Dutch in general are conscious and careful about their money. According to results from the annual monitor from Wiser in Money Affairs, the past year has seen an improvement in the way people organize their finances, the NOS reports.