Interest rates on deposits went up sharply

Four financial institutions have already removed large sum storage fees

Another bank announced that it is raising interest rates on deposits following the decision of the European Central Bank in July to increase the main interest rate by 0.5 points.

“Allianz Bank” raised interest rates on deposit products in line with ECB policy and the change in the macroeconomic situation. As of August 9, the bank removed negative interest rates for deposits over BGN 500,000 and offered positive interest rates for deposits up to BGN 10 million for individuals and corporates customers”, reported the financial institution.

Thus, for standard one-year deposits for individuals in “Allianz Bank” the interest rate is already 0.15% in leva/euro and 0.45% in dollars. For a “Comfort” deposit, where amounts can be deposited at any time and the interest can be withdrawn monthly, for a 3-year term the interest is 0.30% for leva/euro and 0.60% for dollars. The bank specifies that the new interest rates will begin to operate automatically for their customers upon maturity, without requiring any additional actions on their part.

Several smaller banks have also raised interest rates on deposits in the past month, and for longer-term deposits they are now up to 1.5-2% per annum.

However, in the last two years, the majority of banks in our country stopped maintaining deposits and reshaped their customers’ savings into current accounts. In addition to being interest-free, monthly fees are due on these accounts, and for amounts over BGN 200,000 or 400,000, a storage fee is also due – usually 0.7% per year.

Four banks have already announced since the beginning of August that they are removing storage fees – UBB, KVS Bank (formerly Raiffeisenbank), Postenska and Unicredit.

Banks in our country have not yet started raising interest rates on loans, which is also an expected effect of the new policy of the ECB.

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