He has deposited in financial institutions is at levels never seen to date. Households accumulated 1,041 billion euros in bank deposits (fixed deadlines and paid accounts) at the end of December, the largest amount of the historical series that updated the Bank of Spain on Thursday. Although the figures are still provisional, they do allow anticipating a change in trend that breaks with the fall that had been recorded in the previous exercise, when the indicator fell as a consequence of the price crisis and the hardening of monetary policy. Behind the improvement certified by the supervisor, experts advance, they are gradually placed and the increase in, mainly spurred by remuneration improvements and increase in employment. The change in banks position has also influenced, which began to partially remunerate accounts to criticism received by a good part of the clients.
The bulging of deposits to record levels occurs after families contributed around 13,400 million euros only in December, a month in which a good part of them receive extra Christmas pay. In November, the joint savings was around 1,028 billion euros and from July to October, coinciding with the summer period and the postvacational weeks, the indicator remained practically stable at 1,017 billion. If the whole of the year is analyzed, the families deposited in their active bank accounts worth more than 41,000 million, since at the end of 2023 the deposits exceeded the billion euros very little. The increase from one exercise to another was, therefore, 4%.
At the rise in recent months, explains Joaquín Maudos, deputy director of the Valencian Institute for Economic Research (IVIE), may be influencing the increase in the savings rate of households, which in turn is explained by the creation of employment and employment and . In the equation, adds the expert, we must also include the fall in the inflation rate, which has a positive impact on the actual income of households by leaving more money in their pockets.
Not surprisingly, in 2023 families withdrew part of their money to deal with the bunder spiral of prices and the increase in loans – both for the new credit as for the mortgages at a variable type – but also to look for more alternatives profitable in which to place their savings and thus dodge the scarce remuneration that the bank then offered. As María Jesus Fernández, a senior economist of Funcas, recalls, many homes then opted for other types of assets such as the purchase of debt titles, fundamentally public, and participation in investment funds. For sample, the long lines at the headquarters of the Bank of Spain that left the year 2023.
That escape from savings to other types of more profitable vehicles meant a warning to bailors, which decided to change its policy with the aim of attracting clientele and money. Therefore, Maudos continues, “another additional factor that may have contributed to the increase in deposits for 2024 is their remuneration.” Although since July he is falling into the term deposits in parallel to the fall of the office types of the European Central Bank (ECB), in November the average interest rate was at 2.22%. “For conservative and traditional savers, it is usually a usual destination.” They remain to be seen, however, the effects that the reduction of the types will cause in savings remuneration. And it is that the negative side of the lowering of the price of money is usually the adjustment to the decline in financial products such as accounts and deposits.
It is a logical movement: once the ECB embarks on the path of interest rates, typical savings products are updating the profitability they offer. Last year the ease of deposit (the reference interest rate for the bank supervisor) started at 4% and is now 3%, while analysts.
Therefore, Fernández adds, we must bear in mind that although the deposits are at maximum in absolute terms, their real weight is falling little by little due to changes in the composition of financial assets. “Although the volume of money increases, the one that goes to investment funds or debt titles grows much more.” Thus, Fernández insists, there is a change in the composition of the household portfolio: the deposits fall to the 33% environment from 35%, while the weight of funds goes from 42% to 47% and that of Debt titles, from 0.5% to 1.3%.
