“Customers usually avoid long maturities for deposits because they are not sure whether they need the money before the due date or not,” says Catalina Zincenco, head of the retail product management department of BCR. “They choose shorter terms and automatically renew their deposits so that they actually hold them for longer. A three-month deposit for instance is kept for 15 months on average.”
BCR, the largest bank on the market by assets, promises to pay its customers up to 14% fixed rate on the due date for 24-month deposits, which translates into 7% per annum. In comparison, the bank pays no more than 5.5% a year for three-month deposits and 5.75% for six-month ones.
This is not the first such attempt by the bank, with a similar campaign launched in the spring of last year. The product was not very popular, though, so that less than 5% of the resources attracted are deposits with over one-year maturities. “The market still prefers short-term products and it takes time to change this,” Zincenco says.
Unlike the campaign launched in 2010, the new deposit allows customers to withdraw their money before the due date without losing all the interest. They, however, may not deposit any more money after the initial deposit has been made.
BRD, the second largest bank on the market, also has a three-year savings product, which, however, allows money to be deposited after the initial deposit has been made, but is available only in euros and US dollars. The term of the deposit is divided into six-month periods and the interest rises gradually.
(English version by Loredana Frățilă-Cristescu)