The speed at which banks attract 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 among the large banks and an improvement in remuneration in general terms that, without being buoyant, does close the gap with respect to other investment products such as Treasury bills.
In October, families deposited 14,628 million euros in time 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 slightly more than 5,000 million at the beginning of the year which, if added to the 13,316 million raised in September, raises the rate of deposits to almost 28,000 million, a record unknown in five years.
This increase in liabilities responds in part to the fact that in October the remuneration of deposits improved, now standing at 2.45%, compared to the 2.35% at which it had remained stagnant in recent months. This increase contrasts with the decrease in the profitability of Treasury bills, which stood at 3.3% in the auction held this week.
Between inflows and outflows, banks accumulated deposits amounting to 111,499 million euros in October, compared to 104,890 million a month before. The trend was already upward, but the big takeoff is occurring now. The current figure is 70% higher than the 66,460 million euros recorded in the balance sheet in July 2022, when the ECB began to raise interest rates.
The trend occurs despite the fact that until now the remuneration of deposits has evolved well below the interest at which bank clients return their loans, especially the Euribor. The banks’ argument is that they continue to have sufficient liquidity without the need to raise resources from individuals. They also remember that until July 2022 they were remunerating 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 Cuadernos de Información Económica, Funcas predicts an increase in the remuneration of deposits after withdrawing the “ultra-expansive monetary policy” of the ECB, which has allowed banks to finance themselves with the ample liquidity available. A Neovantas report considers that this increase in liability remuneration will be one of the banking trends next year.
With the latest improvement in remuneration, banks are rewarding all of their liabilities at 1.62%, while the volume of their mortgage portfolio, once variable loans have been reviewed, returns at 3.62%.
In an interview with the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique published last weekend, the vice president of the ECB, Luis de Guindos, expressly alluded to Spanish banks to ensure that the interest rate increases “are for borrowers and savers.”
The strategy of the large banks until now has 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 neobanks. Some exceed 4% interest, although they are not backed by the Deposit Guarantee Fund.
From the financial client defense association Asufin they assure that for now “there is no liability war.” The large banks “do offer products with acceptable remuneration, but there is no strategy in this regard.” “We continue to think that the conditions exist for it to exist because it is necessary to understand the client, who is conservative and needs a deposit at a fixed rate” without having to go “to more risky products,” they indicate.
