The gap between operating with the most expensive broker and the cheapest with regard to the custody commission alone can mean that an investor goes from paying nothing -this is the case of 100% online firms- to assuming a cost of more than 650 euros for a Spanish stock market portfolio of 300,000 euros. However, even in the case of the least attractive broker, the expense for the investor of having a stable portfolio will always be much less than what investment funds charge for management fees.
According to data provided by Morningstar, this cost stands, on average, at 1.72% for products that invest in national equities, eight times more than the 0.22% that, on average, apply to entities for custody of a briefcase. This situation is not so onerous when the investment occurs in international markets -Europe and the US-. Bank intermediaries charge 0.45% per year to guard a portfolio; somewhat less than three times what the funds apply -up to 1.16%-; It is much cheaper for them to invest outside of Spain.
From elEconomista we wanted to make a comparison between, exclusively, the custody costs applied by national brokers, without taking into account the commissions for the purchase and sale of shares, the maintenance fee, the stock market fee, the collection of dividends or, even , the extra cost that not carrying out a certain number of operations in a period of time may entail for a shareholder, among others. Nor do investment funds have management-related expenses as a single expense for their participants. In his case, the so-called, in financial jargon, TER (Total Expense Ratio or, translated, total expense ratio) has been left aside, which includes the total expenses that a fund investor must assume due to portfolio turnover.
In this theoretical exercise, and only given the two variables, custody expenses versus management, it is much cheaper to do it through a broker that, of course, does not have the added value provided by fund managers. However, it can be a cheaper alternative for those who are participants in what are known as index funds, similar to an ETF, since they replicate the reference index (benchmark, in the jargon) and therefore have a management practically nil, even though they do charge for it. However, there are brokers that are more expensive than the management that these funds apply.
The most expensive brokers
In this case, which broker to choose? The difference between the most expensive and the cheapest broker -online operators for which the expense is zero- in the assumption of a national portfolio and an investment of 50,000 euros can save you up to 400 euros. And for an international portfolio, up to 500 euros. In the first case, the most expensive custody of Spanish shares for the investor is in the hands of BBVA, Unicaja and Renta 4. The entity chaired by Carlos Torres applies a maximum commission of 0.8% for national operations and up to 1 % in the case of international ones. In the event of having an account amount of 50,000 euros, the cost for the shareholder would reach 500 euros; while on a portfolio of 300,000 euros only in custody the bank would take 2,400 euros. In the case of international shares, the investor must pay 500 and 3,000 euros, respectively.
However, the entity has up to five open platforms with which to operate, the cheapest of all being BBVA Trader, with zero commissions for holding securities after the disappearance at the end of 2016 of Uno-e. This entity, one hundred percent digital, was the great commitment to transform the bank promoted by today’s former president, Francisco González. He managed to break the market by implementing a flat fee to operate. However, clients who have suffered from the situation acknowledge that the firm’s former clients have seen how, upon becoming users of the BBVA broker, their custody commissions have even doubled.
The investor must take into account that to these costs must be added the expense for buying/selling shares, among others, which in the case of BBVA Trader -its cheapest version- would be 18 per euro on an amount of 50,000 euros and of 90 euros for the 300,000. In international operations, the cost is the same in the case of the largest amount, and 55 euros for 50,000, according to data provided by the entity.
Unicaja, whose custody commission is 0.45% annualized or, which is the same, 225 euros for a portfolio of 50,000 euros, and 1,350 euros for one of 300,000 euros, has the second most expensive broker among the national firms. Although, paradoxically, it is the one that presents the least difference between operating in Spain or doing it abroad -it would mean 250 and up to 1,500 euros, in each case-, since it starts with high rates compared to other operators. For the purchase/sale of shares, the Malaga entity, today in the process of merging with Liberbank, will apply a charge of between 6 or 7 euros or 0.35% on cash, depending on both the amount and the number of operations carried out at the time. anus. Somewhat further down are Renta 4 (it would mean an expense of 198 and 1,188 euros, respectively, in national custody, although it is cheaper internationally) and Banco Santander (with a cost of 125 and 750 euros).
In the custody of international shares, Banco Santander appears as the most expensive option on a par with BBVA. The cost, in this sense, is also 500 euros for a portfolio of 50,000 euros and up to 3,000 over 300,000 euros. Bankia, which is one of the cheapest alternatives for a national portfolio, is not in the case of international securities, for which the custody fee is 0.4% per quarter, that is, a cost of 400 euros year. The same cost as CaixaBank.
and the cheapest
The new digital operators sneak in, once again, as the cheapest to invest, since, in the case of DeGiro, ClickTrade and SelfBank do not charge expenses for this management. How do they do that? In the case of the first two, his idea is to take all European retail clients as a single professional investor, which is called an omnibus account in markets. In other words, it consists of charging the stock market fee to a single investor -the broker- and the latter subsequently divides the expense among its different clients, as opposed to the model of traditional entities where an account is opened for each investor, hence the cost for the end customer is superior. In the case of SelfBank, it does operate as a traditional entity. “At the securities deposit level, each client has an individual account in our depositary entity, so the shares are in the name of the client and not Self Bank, unlike other brokers where the shares are in the name of the entity “, they point out from the firm. Openbank, which has traditionally applied for custody of 0.15% in national shares and 0.6% in international shares, has a promotion that will last throughout 2019 for which it will not charge for this concept.
According to the data provided by these entities, without counting the new digital operators mentioned above, GVC Gaesco is the cheapest alternative for a national portfolio. It has a custody commission of 0.1% per year, that is, a cost of 50 euros for an investment of 50,000 euros, and 300 euros for an investment six times greater. After this, the cheapest are Bankia (with a cost of 60 and 360 euros, for each amount) and Openbank (75 and 450 euros, respectively).
GVC Gaesco also repeats itself as the cheapest option in the case of an international stock portfolio, whose cost, an annualized 0.2%, would be 100 euros if 50,000 euros are invested and 600 euros for 300,000 euros. Bankinter and Renta 4 brokers also have low commissions. The first of them applies a custody commission of 0.05% quarterly, that is, 100 euros per year on an investment of 50,000 euros, while in Renta 4 the cost per year is 102 euros on the same amount.
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