The lower remuneration for savings of households and companies by Spanish banks compared to banks in the euro area means that Spanish entities save almost 1,500 million euros, according to calculations made by the Europa Press agency in accordance with the European Central Bank (ECB) statistics.
Specific, households stop receiving 924.16 million euros as Spanish entities have lower interest rates on liabilities than their European peers. Non-financial companies stop obtaining a remuneration of 547.97 million euros.
Total savings (1,472.13 million euros) have been obtained by calculating the interest rate differentials of entities in Spain and the euro zone for the month of February, taking as a reference the liabilities on the balance sheet for that same month. As both deposits and interest fluctuate each month of the year, the amount saved by Spanish entities may vary throughout the year.
sight deposits
According to ECB data, Spanish households had 925,500 million euros in sight deposits in the second month of the year. The lower remuneration in Spain (0.08%) compared to Europe (0.12%) means that Spanish families lose 370.2 million euros.
Non-financial companies, for their part, had 269,100 million euros in sight deposits in the second month of the year, with a remuneration of 0.15% in Spain. If the average interest rate in Europe (0.31%) were applied to these funds, Spanish companies would obtain 430.56 million euros more.
In other words, just because of the low returns that Spanish banks apply compared to their European counterparts in sight deposits (a financial instrument halfway between term deposits and interest-bearing accounts), the savings exceed 800 million euros. .
term deposits
The rest of the amount comes from the term deposits, whose differentials are much higher.
In deposits up to two years, Spanish entities offer 0.30% interest to households, while European ones offer 1.07%. Given that Spanish families had 60,000 million in this type of savings product, the lower remuneration of the banks in Spain implies that households received 462 million less in remuneration
With regard to deposits with a term of more than two years, households had 7,600 million parked, which in Spain are remunerating at 0.51%, while in Europe the interest offered is 1.72%. This differential implies a remuneration in Spain that is 91.96 million euros lower.
In the case of companies, deposits with a term of less than two years in Spain are remunerated with 1.67%, compared to 1.94% in Europe in February. Given that in that month the Spanish companies had 38,800 million euros parked in this type of product, this represents a negative differential of 109.76 million euros.
At the end of February, non-financial corporations also had 4,500 million in deposits with a maturity period of more than two years. In this case they stopped receiving only 7.65 million euros, since in Spain the remuneration is 1.49%, compared to the 1.66% average in the euro zone.
A remuneration that will rise sooner or later
The difference in savings remuneration was one of the issues analyzed by the experts at Alvarez & Marsal last week, when they published their annual report ‘The pulse of the bank’. In your opinion, “sooner or later” the interest offered to customers will have to rise and the rise in interest rates will be transferred to deposits.
In fact, the senior director of the consultancy Eduardo Areilza considered that this situation of low remuneration can lead to reputational risks for the entities. Not only because they offer low remuneration in a context of high inflation and interest rates, but also because entities have been marketing investment funds to clients who were looking for a certain remuneration for their savings for some time. And these types of products, unlike deposits, can incur losses.