The large banks have not yet taken the step of recovering the traditional deposits in their shop windows, waiting for the rise in interest rates to become a fact and compensate for the profitability lost after a decade of zero rates. This lack of remuneration of customer balances has been reflected in a constant transfer of user liquidity from time deposits to sight accounts. A movement that is still going on, despite the imminent rate hike that is expected in the euro zone, and that has caused all banks to lose deposits in favor of accounts, with the exception of .
Of the great Spanish banks, only the group chaired by Ana Botín has increased the balance in term deposits in the last year. Specifically, Santander closed the first quarter of the year with a balance of 185,000 million euros in this product, 8% more than in the same period of the previous year. However, the preference of clients for sight accounts is manifested in the volume of liquidity that they have in this product, almost four times more with 721,000 million euros.
In the whole of the Spanish listed banks, the balance of deposits has yielded 3%, reaching 302,000 million euros, in favor of sight accounts, whose balance has grown by 10%, to 1.64 billion euros. euros.
Santander is the Spanish bank with the largest international presence and especially in markets where there has already been an increase in interest rates by the different central banks to correct inflation, such as in the US, UK, Brazil or Mexico. Therefore, together with the fact that it also has a presence in countries such as Mexico, it will be one of the first entities that begins to affect its margins, and therefore, the rate hike will benefit it.
For now, to see this growth in the business of the EU and therefore, also in Spain, we will have to wait. The president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, pointed this Wednesday to the option of , once the debt purchases are finished.
Although there is no official date, the futures market is already expecting the first increase in the deposit facility for this summer, two more by the end of the year, and new increases in 2023. Currently, the deposit facility is negative in Europe, in -0.5%.
At least three entities that operate in Spain, and waiting for this rise in interest rates, of deposits.
Pibank announced last Thursday that it has raised the interest on the ‘Pibank Deposit’ to 12 months, going from 0.25% APR to 0.5% APR, with quarterly payment of interest, without a minimum or maximum amount and with automatic renewal. For its part, Deutsche Bank recovered the traditional deposit days before, which has already returned to its showcase with a return of 0.15% APR at 12 months, 0.40% at 18 months and 0.60% at 24 months , from a minimum bonus of 3,000 euros to a maximum of 10,000 euros. Finally, EBN allows an investment from 10,000 euros to 250,000 euros, with a bonus of 0.30% APR at 12 months, 0.5% APR at 18 months, 0.65% APR at 24 months and 0.70 % APR at 36 months.
They delay the new offer
Despite these first movements, the financial sources consulted by this newspaper assure that the most relevant banks in the country will delay the date of recovering the interest-bearing deposits among their offer. Entities will wait to notice the rate hike on their accounts first so that, once profitability has improved, they will reopen the bonus offer to customers. However, this first intention may be truncated at the moment that an entity takes out a remunerated deposit and the rest are forced to follow it to compete.
The Euribor, the main mortgage reference indicator, has been taking steps forward since the beginning of April, picking up a possible rate hike in advance. The index on April 12. Finally, it closed the month in positive at 0.166%. Just four months earlier, as of December 31, 2021, it stood at -0.501%. The Euribor advances at an accelerated pace, and already on May 12, the last day for which there is data from the Bank of Spain, it was at 0.230%.
The forecast of the Bankinter analysis house, updated to March 25, before the index became positive, is that the Euribor reaches 0.40% at the end of 2022 and 0.80%, at the end of 2023 However, this estimate is expected to be higher due to the speed at which the mortgage indicator is rising.
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