Term deposits in Luxembourg: 2.75%, really?
For three weeks, I booked appointments — by phone and in branch — with the four big banks of the financial centre. Same notional amount, same duration. Here is what I was offered.
The idea was, at the outset, fairly silly. I wanted to check a hunch: the rates advertised on the websites of the big Luxembourg banks look like the "dish of the day" sign in a restaurant that's run out of the dish. That is to say, they exist, but you often have to negotiate to get a better one — or discover that the announced range, say 0.50 to 2.10%, hides a duller reality.
The scenario: I have €50,000 I want to place for 12 months. Not a fortune, but not a symbolic ticket either. What any resident wants to know: what will I be served?
Spuerkeess, rue Aldringen
First appointment, in that slightly solemn branch where you always feel late even when you arrive early. The adviser, charming, opens Excel. She types, looks at her screen, types again, and gives me an indicative rate: 1.75% gross over 12 months. I politely ask if there's any way to do better. She replies, just as politely, that she can "go up to 1.85%" for new money, and if I promise to also transfer my salaries. Still under 2%.
BIL, route d'Esch
BIL advertises "up to 2.10%" on its website. In the appointment, the relationship manager confirms it — for new money only, 12 months, with a €25,000 minimum. You also have to agree to transfer your current account. In passing, I'm offered an in-house wealth fund "that could do better". I politely say no three times. She smiles. It's part of the job. The firm rate stays at 2.00%.
BGL BNP Paribas, Royal-Hamilius
The biggest surprise. I'm received in a glass office, and the adviser tells me, almost apologetic, that term deposits "aren't the product of the moment", that she'd rather recommend a Luxembourg life insurance contract or a conservative fund. On insistence, the firm 12-month rate is 1.90% gross, from €5,000. Not bad, but the sense that the bank isn't pushing the product, for lack of commercial interest, is palpable.
ING Luxembourg, boulevard Royal
ING plays the digital transparency card more than the others. The rate is announced online (2.10% indicative on 12 months), and that's roughly what I'm confirmed. No negotiation to expect, no aggressive sales pitch either. Honest, readable.
And Lidion Bank, via PickTheBank?
Without leaving home, without an adviser, without negotiation: 2.45% gross over 12 months, from €20,000. And 2.75% gross if you agree to lock it up for five years. The gap with the best offer on the Luxembourg market, at equal duration, is 35 to 65 basis points. On €50,000, that represents, over a year, between €175 and €325 of additional yield. Net of tax (20% withholding), that's €140 to €260 that stay in your pocket.
Why such a gap?
Several reasons, mingled. The big Luxembourg banks are primarily mortgage and wealth-management banks. The yielding deposit is not a strategic product: it costs them, generates no distribution margin, and their liquidity is already abundant on the demand-deposit side (little or no remuneration). They have, structurally, no incentive to fight on rates.
Online platforms like PickTheBank, by contrast, aggregate demand for smaller European banks — often Baltic or Scandinavian — which actively seek to build a deposit base to fund their activity. It's a two-speed market, and the well-informed Luxembourg resident can, legally, choose their lane.
Should you leave your main bank?
No. Nobody should leave their main banker for 0.5% more on a deposit. What changes is that you no longer have to do everything in the same place. The current account, the mortgage, the insurance, stay where they are. Dormant savings, on the other hand, deserve to be treated as a distinct asset — not as a by-product of the current account.
Note: the figures quoted reflect conditions observed between February and April 2026, in private appointments. They may differ from the commercial offer in force when you read this. To be checked directly with the institution.
