Reform of booklet A: Will he bring you much more if it is merged with the LEP?

A new savings product is envisaged in a parliamentary report to replace booklet A. But would this reform really offer better return to savers?

• 
  

  To safeguard
  

  
  
  

  Saved
  

Will the drop in the rate of booklet A will scare away savers? It is the fear of the deputies François Jolivet (Horizons) and Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN), who tabled, Wednesday May 14, an information report on the remuneration of popular savings and middle classes in the National Assembly. According to an investigation cited by the two parliamentarians, “A continuation of the drop in the rate of booklet A could lead 6 out of 10 French people not to feed it or close it and 4 out of 10 holders will abandon that they will abandon the book A if the yield drops to 1.75%”.

However, the prospect of a decrease in the rate of booklet A to 1.7% on August 1 is current, given the withdrawal of inflation and interbank rates. In this context, the rapporteurs are considering a reform of this booklet, which would consist in “merging” it with another savings product, the popular savings book (LEP), “The only regulated savings product really to protect savings from modest households against monetary erosion”. Being correlated with the exact level of inflation, and with a rate which must always be at least 0.5% higher than that of booklet A, the LEP still displays a higher return to it.

Benefit the holders of the LEP Livret A rate

However, for the time being, this remuneration is reserved for the most modest savers. The idea of ​​the report would also be to provide them with booklets A non -eligible for LEP. More precisely, “The first 10,000 euros of this new merged booklet would be guaranteed of remuneration equal to inflation, the higher sums being for their part apply a rate corresponding to the current formula of booklet A”recommends the parliamentary report.

By stating exactly this proposal, and at the expected rates on August 1, this new booklet would present itself: the first 10,000 euros would be remunerated at a rate of 2.2%or the forecast rate of the booklet A on this date noted half a point (1.7% + 0.5%). Then, savings deposited more than 10,000 euros, up to 22,950 euros (the current ceiling of booklet a) would benefit from a rate of 1.7%.

A gain of 20 euros this year compared to the booklet A current

In this case, this new merged booklet filled with the ceiling of 22,950 euros would generate 91.67 euros in interest on the first 10,000 euros, then 91.73 euros out of the next 12,950, between August 1 and December 31, 2025, or 183.40 euros affected on January 1, 2026. In comparison, a booklet A as we know it today goes, on the ceiling of 22,950 euros, generate 162.56 euros Interest, if it is paid to 1.7% between August 1 and December 31. This new booklet project, if he is saturated, would therefore allow a gain of 20.84 euros over five months. A small added value compared to the current version of the Livret A.

It is that the occult report that the competitive advantage of the LEP is less due to its calculation formula than to the various “boosts” from which it has benefited for two years. On four times, in fact, the Minister of the Economy, under the recommendation of the Governor of the Banque de France, decided to derogate from the calculation formula to offer a better rate to the LEP. On February 1, for example, he should have dropped to 2.9%, but was maintained at 3.5%. Finally, starting from the observation that only the LEP rate allows to protect the savers of inflation is also questionable: over the last 25 years, the booklet A also fulfilled this mission with remuneration always slightly higher than the price level, except in 2023 and 2024, years marked by exceptional inflation. Since February 2024, with the passage of monthly inflation over a year below 3%, the booklet has remunerated its holders again above inflation.