A reduction in the Livret A rate is looming, for the first time since 2020: the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, proposed on Wednesday to the Minister of the Economy to reduce this rate from February 1, to go from 3% currently to 2.4%.
“I am proposing this very (Wednesday) morning to the Minister of Finance a rate of the booklet A reduced from 3% to 2.4% from February 1, which is a rate still significantly higher than inflation,” declared Mr. . Villeroy de Galhau during a hearing at the Senate Finance Committee.
It is now up to the new Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, to approve this reduction.
Logical since it reflects the decline in inflation in recent months, this reduction would be a first since the beginning of 2020, when the rate rose from 0.75% to 0.50%, before gradually increasing thereafter.
And we have to go back to 2009 to find a larger drop, greater than 0.6 percentage points.
Compass of the savings market, the Livret A rate, also valid for the Sustainable and Solidarity Development Booklet (LDDS), is theoretically revised twice a year.
– Consume rather than save –
The reduction in the Livret A rate is bad news for the 57 million holders of a “little red livret”.
However, it offers a breath of fresh air to the actors who pay him: the banking establishments and the Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), which Éric Lombard headed until his appointment as minister at the end of December.
The sums deposited in Livret A and LDDS accounts are 59.5% managed by the CDC and intended mainly to finance social housing.
This drop in the rate will also be viewed favorably by insurers, who offer a competing savings product, life insurance.
It also encourages the French to consume rather than save. The governor thus deplored a “high household savings rate (…)” to the senators.
Livret A and LDDS were filled with an additional 17.5 billion euros between January and November 2024, to reach an outstanding amount of 582.3 billion euros, according to the latest data from the CDC.
– A boost for LEP –
If the governor of the Banque de France strictly applied the calculation formula for the Livret A rate, he wished to deviate from it for the rate of the Popular Savings Booklet (LEP), which would increase to 3.5%, compared to 4 % currently, instead of the 2.9% theoretically planned.
“On the Popular Savings Booklet, which is the most protective product for the savings of the most modest, I recommend that its rate be set at 3.5%, which is very significantly above the mechanical formula,” he said. declared Mr. Villeroy de Galhau before the senators.
“It is essential to continue this momentum in favor of popular savings,” insists the Banque de France in its press release.
The number of holders of this booklet, accessible subject to income conditions, tends to plateau: it stood at 11.8 million at the end of 2024, still far from the 19 million eligible.
“Banks can and must do even better” to market this product, the governor stressed.
Only people declaring up to 22,419 euros of tax income for a single person, or 34,393 euros for a couple (two shares) can hold a LEP.
On their own, banking establishments are only timidly participating in the development of LEP. The product is not at the top of the list of agencies or websites of banking establishments.
The page dedicated to savings on the Banque Populaire website does not offer it. This is also the case for that of the Savings Bank.
LCL does not present it on the home page of its website, and, rather than its advantageous rate, prefers to highlight on its savings page the necessary income conditions and the limited savings ceiling.
