Spanish banks continue to offer a lower return on deposits compared to the euro zone average, although it is necessary to make two clarifications. The first is that the gap has been reduced substantially in just three months and the second, that they also apply a somewhat lower cost for the loans they grant, according to the latest update of the database with which the European Central Bank ( ECB) observes these trends.
In June, the average return on deposits in Spain stood at 2.22%, compared to the average of 2.73% in the euro area. The difference is 18%, but three months earlier, in March, it was 35%, when Spain marked a return of just 1.36%.
What has happened in the last three months is that interest rates have continued to rise from the 3.5% marked at the end of March and that banks have been forced to repay most of the special loans received from the ECB during the pandemic, known as TLTRO.
At the end of June the deadline for Spanish banks to return 38,000 million of this aid expired. Eurozone entities repaid a total of 477,000 million euros, which reduced the ECB's balance sheet by 6%.
The measure contributed to reducing liquidity in the financial system, although Spanish banks continue to have rates that are well above 100%, the threshold from which they cover these needs for at least one month.
In the last press conference to present the semi-annual results, the CEO of Santander, Héctor Grisi, said that clients "are very calm" regarding deposits and are preferring to use their savings to repay mortgages. He also pointed out that the subsidiary Open Bank already pays more than 3.07% for these products.
The CEO of BBVA, Onur Genç, said that the bank still has high liquidity and is free of pressure to raise remuneration, while the CEO of CaixaBank, Gonzalo Gortázar, indicated that the entities are already offering "much more attractive" products than deposits.
In the euro zone, Estonia, with 3.61%, and France, with 3.46%, are the countries that pay the most for deposits. In Germany, the average is 2.78%, while Slovenia, with 0.72%, is the country that pays the worst.
The average return on savings in the euro zone is better than the 0.22% a year ago, when the ECB was preparing to start raising interest rates several decades later. In October 2008, these products reached a return of 4.77%.
Spain is one of the countries that pays the least for deposits, but it can also be said that its individuals can take out a loan at a lower cost. The average is 3.75%, which places it in a better position than Germany, with 4%, although above France, where the rate is 3%.
