After a pause in the third quarter, the assets available in the current accounts of French people decreased again at the end of last year, said the Banque de France on Wednesday in its quarterly publication on household savings and financial assets.
But even if it decreases, the amount of money lying dormant in current accounts – which banks generally do not remunerate, with rare exceptions, and which therefore constitute an almost free resource for them – remains very significant. At 568 billion euros at the end of last year, it is higher than the cumulative assets of Livrets A and Livrets de développement durable et solidaire (LDDS) at the same date, paid for their part at 3% net.
The first available data thus indicate “a resumption of the outflow movement on sight deposits” between October and December, specifies the central bank, with 17.2 billion euros less. Available at any time, so-called “sight deposits” fill traditional bank accounts.
Success of Livret A and term accounts
The withdrawal phenomenon is mainly explained by two factors: household spending, accelerated by inflation and the end-of-year period conducive to spending, and competition from investments with more attractive rates such as regulated savings (Booklets A, LDDS, etc.) and term accounts (accounts blocked for a specific period offering a fixed return defined at the outset). These two investment families grew by 12.8 billion euros and 11.1 billion euros respectively in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The financial assets of the French amounted to 6,000 billion euros at the end of September, according to the latest data available from the Banque de France. This gigantic sum, difficult to imagine, is twice the public debt and more than twice the entire market capitalization of CAC40 companies.
Life insurance remains the leading investment in value, ahead of unlisted shares and other investments (associated with the activity of an individual entrepreneur or via investments) and regulated savings as a whole.
Reproduction forbidden.