What should we think of the “European savings account” which allows you to invest 50,000 euros at a rate of 7.85% while benefiting from a guarantee from the European Union? Here is the question asked by two MoneyVox readers. Behind this gross scam also hides the very real project of developing a European retirement savings product.
Question from Le curious, November 17,
What is the European savings account?
Question from Jean, October 18,
What do you think of the European savings account at more than 6%?
Hello The curious and Jean. Thank you for your complementary questions. “The European savings account” you are talking about is a gross scam. This is an advertisement on Facebook which offers to place your money in a “European savings account”, supposedly guaranteed by the European Union. “Benefit from solid and reliable security”, says this advertisement which highlights an investment with a yield of 7.85% with the possibility of investing up to 50,000 euros. All with savings available at any time while benefiting from a capital guarantee.
A rate of 7.85% is twice as much as what the Livret A (3%) and the Popular Savings Books (4%) currently offer. Two regulated savings products whose rates should increase on February 1, 2025 to 2.5% and 3% respectively due to the decline in inflation. As for bank accounts, certain promotional offers offer a boosted rate of up to 4% for 4 months, with an annual rate which, in all cases, does not exceed 2.75% gross.
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According to the legal fact-checking site Les Surligneurs, “more than a million Facebook users had seen one of these advertisements at least once in France and Belgium”. 40 years to 65 years and over are the age group targeted by this scam which links to the site livreteurope.fr
As the online media notes, no mandatory legal notice is displayed there and “the only “Privacy policy” page is a copy and paste from the “use of personal data” page of another completely regulatory site” . It’s the one from MoneyVox!
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“The purpose of this scam is not yet clear. Simple subtraction of personal data when you enter it in the “eligibility” form? Monetizing the feed on this dubious site? Whatever the case, the scammers were able to skilfully surf on a current topic,” explains Les Surligneurs. Indeed, at the start of 2024, Bruno Le Maire, then Minister of the Economy, proposed the creation of a “European savings product” with the EU states that wish it, in order to mobilize private capital to serve of growth.
There already exists a European savings product: the PEPP, for Pan-European Personnel Pensions Product. However, this, which resembles a Retirement Savings Plan, is only marketed by a single distributor in 4 countries of the European Union (but not in France), underlines a Euronews investigation. PEPP has 5,000 clients, half of which are in Poland.
A failure linked in particular to the complexity of the different tax rules depending on the country and which therefore encourages European political leaders to offer a new product. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz approved in May this project for a European savings product supposed to see the light of day in 2025.
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