The speed at which banks are taking deposits from savers has increased after the summer and is already the highest in five years. The cause is the appearance of the first interesting offers between the big banks and the improvement in remuneration in general terms, which, without being prosperous, does reduce the distance compared to other investment products, such as Treasury bills.
In October, families deposited 14,628 million euros in term deposits in Spanish banks, the highest figure since January 2018, according to data from the Bank of Spain. It is a figure much higher than the 5,000 million at the beginning of the year, which, if added to the 13,316 million that were collected in September, raises the rate of collection to almost 28,000 million, a record unknown in five years.
This increase in liabilities responds, in part, to the fact that the remuneration of deposits improved in October, now standing at 2.45%, compared to the 2.35% at which it had stagnated in recent months. This increase contrasts with the decline in the profitability of Treasury bills, which was placed at this week’s auction at 3.3%.
Between inflows and outflows, banks accumulated deposits in October for an amount of 111,499 million euros, compared to 104,890 million a month earlier. The trend was already up, but the big takeoff is happening now. The current figure is 70% higher than the 66,460 million euros that were accounted for in the July 2022 balance sheet, when the ECB began raising interest rates.
The trend comes despite the fact that until now the remuneration of deposits has evolved well below the interest at which bank customers return loans, especially the Euribor. The banks’ argument is that they continue to have enough liquidity without the need to raise resources from individuals. In addition, they remember that until July 2022 they remunerated the savings, even if it was at rates of 0.025%, despite the fact that the price of money was negative.
In the latest edition of Quaderns d’Información Econòmica, Funcas predicts an increase in the remuneration of deposits after the withdrawal of the “ultra-expansive monetary policy” of the ECB, which has allowed banks to finance themselves with the ample liquidity available. A report by Neovantas considers that this increase in remuneration of liabilities will be one of the banking trends in the coming year.
With the latest improvement in remuneration, banks reward all liabilities at 1.62%, while the volume of the mortgage portfolio, once the variable loans have been reviewed, yields 3.62%.
In an interview with the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique, published at the weekend, the vice-president of the ECB, Luis de Guindos, expressly alluded to the Spanish banks to ensure that interest rate hikes “are for borrowers and savers”.
The strategy of the big banks has so far consisted of promoting current accounts or investment products, without explicitly betting on deposits.
Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank already offer products above 2%, but in deposit comparators the best offers continue to come from foreign banks or new banks. There are those that exceed 4% interest, even though they are not guaranteed by the Deposit Guarantee Fund.
From the financial client defense association Asufin, they assure that for now “there is no war of liabilities”. The big banks “do offer products with acceptable remuneration, but there is no strategy on the subject in any way”. “We continue to think that the conditions are there for it to exist, given that it is necessary to understand the client, who is conservative and needs a fixed-rate deposit” without having to resort to “higher-risk products”, they indicate.