In the Eurozone, investments are protected by a uniform statutory deposit insurance scheme, which means that savers in different countries enjoy similar safety standards. However, country ratings, assigned by rating agencies and reflecting the creditworthiness of the countries, vary. Countries with a rating of AAA, such as Germany and Sweden, are considered particularly safe, while countries with a rating of BBB, like Italy, are classified as riskier. These ratings are crucial for savers’ decisions on where to invest their money. Despite this overarching protection, the creditworthiness of individual countries varies significantly, as indicated by ratings assigned by various rating agencies.

The analysis shows that almost 81 percent of daily and fixed-term deposits were invested in countries with AAA ratings, even though the average interest rates in countries with BBB ratings were higher. This illustrates that many savers are willing to forgo higher interest rates in order to minimize risk. Notably, the willingness to take risks also exhibits gender-specific differences: men tend to be more risk-seeking than women, with only 16.8 percent of women investing in countries with lower ratings, compared to over 20 percent of men.