Among our neighbors, real time is the rule. In France, on the other hand, interest on savings accounts is calculated every 15 days and credited in one go, at the end of the year. A method less favorable to the saver, but which no one has the will to change.
A 3% Savings Account, a 5% LEP: the remuneration of regulated savings accounts remains particularly attractive. With the slowdown in price increases (2.9% in February 2024), it is even better than ever. The real yield (adjusted for inflation) of the Livret A has become (slightly) positive again for the first time since March 2021, that of the LEP is now more than 2%.
* monthly inflation excluding tobacco
In red: real return on the Livret A negative compared to inflation
In green: positive real return on Livret A compared to inflation.
MoneyVox
This is obviously excellent news for the tens of millions of French people – more than 80% of the population for the Livret A alone – who trust regulated savings to invest their precautionary savings. At 3%, a Livret A having reached the ceiling of 22,950 euros earns 688.50 euros over one year.
However, there is a downside: we will have to wait until the end of 2024 to reap the benefits. Indeed, the rule for savings accounts in general is as follows: their interest is calculated every 15 days, on the 1st and 16th of each month, and paid in one go, at the end of the year.
This fortnight rule, as it is generally called, is moreover a particularism. France is one of the rare countries practicing this method of calculating interest, explains economist Philippe Crevel, an excellent expert on the subject.
The day-to-day calculation is more favorable to the saver
Outside our borders, another rule generally prevails: interests are calculations every day And paid into the account at the end of each month. A calculation method more favorable to the saver.
Not necessarily in terms of the amount of interest received: in this method of calculation, the effects of monthly capitalization – what we call compound interest – are neutralized, as we explained to you in this article on the calculation of interest. day-to-day interests.
On the other hand, the day-to-day calculation presents two assets. One, it allows you to receive your interest each month, and therefore todispose of it as you wish: to spend them, transfer them to another medium, etc. Two: it allows limit loss of income generated by the fortnightly rule when you make withdrawals from your savings account.
Livret A 3% and LEP 6%: this tip to maximize your interests
A bicentenary rule…
Where does this French specificity come from that we could do without? Another tricolor particularity: the Livret A. The fortnight rule, in fact, is closely linked to the venerable savings account, created more than 200 years ago. The origin of this rule is ancient, it undoubtedly dates from the beginnings of Livret A, confirms Philippe Crevel. For the sake of simplicity, a time when there were no computers…
Banks now have computers. They even become, a little more each year, technology companies, able to instantly update their customers’ balances or transfer money from one account to another, anywhere in the world, in seconds. However, the age of real-time banking, the ancient method of calculation remains the norm.
This survival is explained firstly by regulatory obstacles. The fortnightly rule for regulated savings accounts is included in the monetary and financial code: banks cannot therefore deviate from it. This is also true for non-regulated savings accounts, these B savings accounts specific to each bank. Here again, the calculation per fortnight is included in a general decision (1), relating to the conditions for receiving funds by banks, dating from… May 1969!
…in the interest of the banks
The regulatory question, however, does not alone explain the maintenance of the fortnight rule. Dozens of examples show it: the law knows how to adapt to change, particularly that enabled by technological progress.
The problem is elsewhere: no one in France publicly calls for a change in the method of calculation interest on the booklets. Especially not the banks. The current old system is rather in favor of credit institutions and we understand that they are not rushing to the gate to make it evolve, notes Marc Tempelman, co-founder of the savings application Cashbee, who continues: In the 2000s, certain banks [HSBC France, notamment avec son Compte Epargne Direct disparu en 2012, NDLR] attempted a marketing coup by offering day-to-day paid accounts. This was not very successful. It must be said that the difference is difficult to explain and that the calculation must be carried out on large sums for it to really make a difference.
The subject is also not a priority for investors. Calculate daily interest? Why not… This would maximize the interest received, announces Jean-Yves Mano, president of CLCV, one of the main consumer associations in France. Before qualifying: The priority of the CLCV today is rather to modify the formula for calculating the Livret A rate to limit its disconnection with inflation.
Should the Livret A really protect you from inflation?