PLAIN FARE PLEASES THE INVESTORS.

The article focuses on the economic condition of Belgium. It states that Belgian appetite for Eurobonds is huge. Belgians prefer saving to consuming, even rivalling the Japanese. Despite high taxes and an economy as precarious as any in Europe, finance minister Mark Eyskens recently declared that citizens were still spending too much. An increasing proportion of income, about 15%, is now being stashed away in banks and other savings institutions to be channelled into investments. In control of one such fund is Staf Van den Bergh, an ex-bond trader and syndicate man at Banque Bruxelles Lambert SA (BBL), one of the big three Belgian commercial banks. He manages $250 million equivalent in bond portfolios for bank clients, of which 80% goes into Eurobonds. His job is to provide a dividend once a year and to make a reasonable capital gain. Diversity is another way of keeping risks to a minimum in Belgium. Belgian law dictates that no more than 10% of any fund can be invested in a single borrower or in non-listed securities, and no fund may contain more than 10% of a single issue. This is known as the three times 10 rule. Last year it replaced the much stricter three times five rule.