Greek-held banks tend to pay generous interests for their clients’ savings. Bancpost, a top-ten bank controlled by Greek financial group Eurobank, came with a promotional offer, paying 7.5% a year to clients who deposit at least RON3,000 for four months. ATE Bank, a small Greek-held bank, pays 7.75% a year for three-month leu deposits in its standard offer. The local subsidiary of Portuguese-held Millennium in turn offers interests of 7.5% a year on leu-denominated deposits, but only to clients with savings of over RON100,000.
At the opposite end are BCR and BRD, leaders of the banking system, which have recently operated interest rate cuts, lowering their interests on standard deposits to around 5%. Interests no longer reach 7% a year even in the case of special products.
“The market trend is for Greek banks to raise their interests in order to keep their clients. Even if they are in no big need of liquidity, they do need to keep their clients and are forced to raise interests,” says Dan Armeanu, professor at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest.