Dutch households’ bank deposits continued to grow in 2023, new figures from DNB show. Total deposits in payment and savings accounts at banks in the Netherlands increased by €14.9 billion to €576.3 billion. However, the increase in 2023 is significantly less than during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Households also received more interest on their savings accounts.
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The €14.9 billion increase in savings deposits at Dutch banks seen in 2023 is similar to the period prior to the pandemic. Between 2013 and 2019, annual savings growth averaged €10.1 billion.
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During the pandemic (2020-2022), that amount rose to an average of €37.8 billion a year. In those years, the disposable incomes of most households were sustained due in part to extensive government support, while the pandemic containment measures led to a fall in consumption. When the containment measures were rapidly phased out in 2022, the growth of savings was already weakening slightly.
The past year has also seen a rise in the popularity of holding bank accounts abroad, although the amounts involved are relatively small. This development may also be partly responsible for the slower growth of bank deposits at Dutch banks in their home market.
Of the €576.3 billion of household bank deposits in the Netherlands, almost 80% (€458.9 billion) is held in savings accounts, with the remainder (€117.4 billion) being held in payment accounts.
In 2023, over €1.7 billion in interest was credited to savings accounts. That is more than three times as much as in 2022, when €0.5 billion was credited.
The increase is due to interest rates paid on these accounts, which have been rising steadily since the summer of 2022. In 2012, interest credited to savings accounts peaked at €6.0 billion before gradually declining. In 2022, €0.5 billion was the lowest amount credited since DNB began tracking these figures (1998).
The higher interest rates on savings accounts may also explain why Dutch households’ payment account balances dropped by €14.1 billion in 2023.
In recent years, when the interest rate differential between payment and savings accounts was virtually nil, households’ balances in payment accounts, like those in savings accounts, grew sharply. Households now seem to want to take advantage of the higher rates paid on savings (over a percentage point difference at the end of 2023) by transferring funds from their payment accounts to their savings accounts.
Households deposited €27.2 billion in savings accounts last year. However, the decline in payment account balances means that total deposits grew less sharply.
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