Accuracy experts point out that entities do not need to capture savings
MADRID, 28 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Alvarez’s senior manager
In statements to Europa Press, Areilza explained that the banks already have enough savings from their clients, although this is found to a greater extent in sight accounts, and not in term products, for which reason he maintains that it will be the client “the one who will have to decide where he wants to move the money from his account.”
It should be noted that, according to data from the Bank of Spain, the savings that Spanish families kept in checking accounts was 915,606 million euros in March, an amount that had been reduced by nearly 7,000 million compared to February, while they had 69,886 million euros in term deposits, some 4,000 million euros more than in February.
In this way, he explained that the large banks – which have not yet decided to return to the deposit business compared to other smaller, foreign entities dedicated to the ‘online’ business that would already be remunerating deposits, in some cases , at 3% APR– is currently designing an offer to offer alternatives to its clients so that the money in their current account begins to generate a remuneration.
“The first thing that banks have to do is design a new range of deposits to place them that perhaps does not have to look like those that existed ten years ago,” said Areilza, who also points out that the alternatives offered by the entities Their users can include products such as life insurance, monetary investment funds or the direct purchase of Treasury Bills.
Thus, the Alvarez expert
Areilza has assured that, together with the trillion euros that families have in bank accounts -both on demand and in installments-, in Spain there are some 325,000 million euros in funds. Within this figure, the monetary funds, which invest in short-term securities and fixed income of the States, “there are only 6,000 million. It is a product that has not yet been sufficiently commercialized”, she has maintained.
Therefore, it considers that the bank’s job now is to advise its clients which alternatives best suit their needs, while clients are also the ones who have to go to their entities to demand options.
Lastly, another alternative to not demanding savings solutions is that excess savings are being used to repay the mortgage loan early. “Before buying a deposit, I would pay the mortgage,” says Areilza.
“Normally, very rapid rises in deposits occur when entities need to capture because they have a problem that they have grown too much and need to finance themselves. But right now there are more deposits than loans and entities have excess savings on their balance sheets, They don’t need to capture more”, he continued.
From Accuracy they also coincide in highlighting to Europa Press that entities do not need or do not have sufficient incentives to start remunerating savings with the current situation of ample liquidity and the slowdown in credit activity.
Specifically, it indicates that the three main Spanish banks –Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank– have a liquidity buffer, in aggregate terms, of around 50% of retail deposits, which reflects that “there is no need to attract additional funding”.
The consultant’s experts add that not all of the retail deposits are equally volatile, which implies that a “high percentage” will remain in the entity regardless of the level of interest rates. In this way, if we only observe the “coverage” offered by the cushion of liquid assets against less stable deposits, the percentage is “much more comfortable”: 130% in the case of Santander, 145% in the case of BBVA and 260% in that of CaixaBank.
“On the part of the depositor, before unleashing his anger against credit institutions, he must understand that he has different options if he wants to place his money in an alternative product to deposits”, such as Treasury Bills or monetary funds.
Regarding the differences with Europe, the associate director of financial institutions at Scope Ratings, Chiara Romano, has pointed out to Europa Press that the remuneration patterns between countries “differ a lot”, since, for example, in Spain it has historically been below that the remuneration offered in other countries.
Romano indicates that the last published figures, corresponding to March 2023, show that Sweden and Norway had a pass-through rate on deposits (that is, the part of the income from higher rates that is transferred to depositors) applied by the entities financial was over 50%. Belgium, France and Switzerland were in the middle of the ranking, between 15% and 30%, while in the lower part – between 0% and 6% – were Germany, Spain and Italy.
For his part, Areilza points out that the European banking market “is not yet a single market” and each country works autonomously and with autonomous rules, something that the European authorities are trying to change with the creation of the Deposit Guarantee Fund European.
“Each country has its rules. For example, in France, deposits are remunerated by law”, since it is the French Government that sets the interest rate for these products by decree. In this way, while rates have been low –causing a drop in remuneration for deposits– in France, remuneration continued with 1% or 2%.
