2024-04-11 22:29:12
Luxembourg banks recorded record profits of 6.6 billion euros in 2023. A historic amount that is mainly due to the strong growth in the interest margin, that is, the difference between interest received and interest paid, explains Union Luxembourgeoise des Consommateurs (Luxembourg Union of Consumers, with the acronym ULC). The increase in interest rates for customers certainly contributed to this.
“While the champagne corks are coming loose from the bottles in the management of Luxembourg banks at the moment, customers continue to be left in the lurch”, declares Nico Hoffmann, president of the ULC, in the statement released this Thursday.
For this official, the record profits of banking institutions, although positive for the country’s economy, cannot be made at the expense of consumers.
Given these results, banks have to alleviate the situation of customers, who suffer, above all, “with the burden of high interest rates”, particularly on bank loans for housing.
Banking institutions must adopt a “more favorable rate policy for the consumer”, claims UCL.
The profits obtained make it possible to modify the conditions established in recent months with the successive increase in variable and fixed interest rates.
“Fair and accessible” credit conditions
UCL argues that banks should “offer fair and accessible credit conditions to their customers”, for example, “establishing a lower interest margin”.
Currently, the country’s banks can set the interest rates on loans themselves, “independently of the interest rates of the European Central Bank (ECB)”.
Interest rates drop significantly for the first time since the start of the crisis
Lower rates would contribute to improving the quality of life of many residents, whose family income was greatly affected by the increase in payments to the bank. Many families find it difficult to pay this installment and have money for other expenses.
A little less “greed”
UCL emphasizes that it is positive for banks to make a profit, and that they should continue to do so in the future. But he asks these financial institutions for “a little less greed and a little more humanity”, a condition that would not “harm” them.
Those who earn little in Luxembourg are living “on the edge of their limits”
Spuerkeess, 100% owned by the State, could set an example, understands UCL. This is because “a downward adjustment in interest rates in public banks could generate an imitation effect in other banks”, says the president of UCL.
2024-04-11 22:29:12