Procrastination behaviour – based on thoughts such as “I will start saving tomorrow” – as well as limited rationality seem to abound. Given these examples, my second main message is that since individuals only seem to be rational up to a point, there is considerable value in preserving the collective nature of our system.
Credit cooperatives and savings banks – institutions that are heavily reliant on interest business, relatively speaking – also managed more or less to maintain the previous year’s net figure. But the low-interest-rate environment is also posing a threat to the financial system. As higheryielding legacy loans mature, they are being replaced by ones generating lower returns, some of which have longer tenors.