It is a savings account still unknown to the French, and yet the most profitable. With a rate of 6.1%, the popular savings account (LEP) greatly exceeds the 3% of the booklet A. The LEP is thus the only booklet whose rate is above inflation, at 5.9 % over one year in April, according to provisional data from INSEE.
However, if 18.6 million French people are eligible for this LEP, only 9.2 million have opened one. “It has increased a lot in recent months – from 6.9 million in 2021 to 8.5 million in 2022 – but there is still a real margin for progress”, underlined Friday on Radio Classique the governor of the Banque de France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau. In total, 9 billion euros are currently placed in this booklet.
Its rate has also evolved rapidly, going from 2.2% between February and August 2022, to 4.6% between August 2022 and January 2023, before reaching the 6.1% fixed since last February. Like the livret A, the LEP is a risk-free and tax-exempt investment, on which it is possible to withdraw the money at any time. For François Villeroy de Galhau, “the LEP is the real popular savings product”.
To open one with your bank, however, you must be one of the French people with the lowest incomes. The reference tax income must therefore be less than 21,393 euros for a single person and 32,818 euros for a couple. Note that the LEP ceiling is set at 7700 euros.
