The big banks refuse to enter the deposit war launched by digital entities and CaixaBank continues. Santander, BBVA, and Sabadell, three of the banks that have, together with the Catalan bank, the largest share of the Spanish market, ordered not to enter the fight that started a few months ago and the bank led by Gonzalo Gortázar continued only a few weeks ago when it was put on the table of a deposit with a return of up to 2% APR. This was clarified by various sources in the sector and confirmed by the representatives of the entities themselves in the latest meetings with analysts, as learned by elEconomista.es.
So, now, none of these three entities – neither Bankinter nor Unicaja – has a deposit offer in their general catalog for individuals. With no deadline and with more or less pay. This product disappeared directly from their shop windows for the general public due to the low attraction generated by its wages. BBVA and Bankinter are the only ones that, through their website, offer a type of deposit. Therefore, one of Basque origin has in its catalog for individuals a savings product that combines a deposit with an investment fund at 0.65% TIN and with a maturity of 13 months. In the case of the bank led by MarÃa Dolores Dancausa, its offer includes two dollar deposits, one for twelve months at 4% APR and another for six months at 3.84% APR, but both require one minimum investment of $15,000, which also does not apply to all types of clients.
And the war on deposits, as it was done in the years immediately after the Great Crisis, with betas – the average percentage of Euribor transferred to the payment of savings – which reached 90%, not included in forecasts of the Great. banks. So, as already pointed out by elEconomista.es, the major entities do not see this transfer percentage exceed 40% in this cycle, which puts the peak at the end of 2024.
The reason lies, in particular, in the sufficient liquidity that fills the balance sheets of these banks, now that even the TLTROs – cheap liquidity pumped by the ECB to entities in the worst moments of Covid – are about to expire in their entirety. LCR ratios (liquidity coverage ratio) are the widest among all major entities, while the loan-to-deposit ratio remains below 100% in all of them.
With this panorama, entities are prohibited from participating in a deposit war. At least, they will not do it in a general way for the retail customer, although they may launch specific offers for some customer segments. Yes, they will do this with some customer segments, such as Private Banking or large companies, which in some cases have begun to receive payments close to Euribor for their money.
It should be noted that this difference that can now be seen in the wages of deposits between different types of clients also existed before the rate increase. So, when the price of money is negative, individuals do not have to pay to leave their money in the bank, although large companies are forced to face this cost which, sometimes, reaches 0, 5%.
‘Gap’ in the small ones
The deposit fee figures of the big banks have nothing to do with the offers launched by the smaller or digital entities. Therefore, entities such as SelfBank launched in recent days two new deposits at 3.20% APR and 3.30% APR for six and twelve months respectively. Of course, they have a minimum value of 1,000 euros and a maximum of one million, although they are not conditional on contracting other products.
Other digital entities, such as ING, are also committed to this type of savings product. Therefore, last week the orange entity extended the deadline to subscribe to its deposit at 2.75% APR to four months in another month. In this way, the period of its contract that ended today, September 30, has been extended until October 31, as stated in a communication sent to the clients of the entity itself to which elEconomista.es has access.
In terms of accounts, EBN Banco stands out, paying up to 3% APR from 3,000 euros, as announced a few weeks ago. Others such as Evo Banco or Openbank, digital entities of Bankinter and Santander, respectively, also have offers of 2.5 and 1.75%.
