No rise to 1er august. As announced on July 13, Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, the rate of the Livret A and the Livret de développement durable et solidaire (LDDS) will remain at 3% for eighteen months. A disappointment for savers, who thought that the level of inflation was going to propel the rate of remuneration of the Livret beyond this level. Are there now more profitable options, but just as risk-free and whose capital is guaranteed? Yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to rush to invest in it.
Complete your Livret A and Livret LDDS to the ceiling
The first solution is… to fill in your Livret A and your Livret LDDS. Even with a remuneration capped at 3%, the Livret A – and its little brother, the LDDS – retains interest. Not to mention that other regulated booklets can also pay attractive and tax-free remuneration. This is the case of the People’s Savings Book (LEP) now accessible to the most modest households, whose remuneration is now set at 6%, and to young people’s books, the yield of which is set by each establishment.
Admittedly, inflation (4.3% over one year in July) is eroding remuneration and part of the capital. However, the gains obtained from the sums placed in these regulated savings accounts are totally tax-exempt, which is not the case for the solutions available to replace the guaranteed and risk-free regulated savings accounts.
The fact remains that a growing proportion of savers can no longer deposit money in their regulated passbooks. “With the payments of the past three years, the number of Livret A and LDDS accounts on the ceiling is increasing at high speed. According to the report of the Regulated Savings Observatory, 5.3 million Livret A savings accounts held by individuals exceeded the regulatory ceiling of 22,950 euros, or 9.6% of the savings accounts. In 2022, this number increased by one million, 24% of LDDS savings accounts are also at the ceiling (12,000 euros), i.e. 6 million. This number is also up by 670,000 in 2022 from 320,000 in 2021”, notes Philippe Crevel, director of the Circle of savings. It is primarily people who have “saturated” their regulated booklets who should be interested in their options.
Open a superbook
Banks offer bank books for which they set the interest rate themselves. Reduced to a bare minimum when interest rates were low, the return on these booklets is now attractive in some banks. Thus, if the basic remuneration of the BNP bank book remains, for example, 0.10%, it is 0.50% at Crédit Agricole or Société Générale, but may be higher elsewhere. “The big banks are quicker to raise their mortgage rates than to increase the remuneration of deposits”observes with a touch of mischief Marc Tempelman, co-founder of Cashbee, a French fintech.
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