Banks lose €7.6Bn in deposits

Portugal’s banks have lost a massive €7.6Bn in deposits since the start of the year, closing April with the lowest level of new deposits for a year.

According to data from the Bank of Portugal, families are continuing to take their savings out of banks with saving stock falling 1.7% in March to €174.8Bn — the lowest level since March 2022.
The volume of deposits has been falling for three consecutive and since the start of the year the banks have lost €7.6Bn in deposits.
In March alone, the banks registered withdrawals of €3Bn in deposits, the highest monthly amount since 1980. (When the Bank of Portugal began records)
According to the Bank of Portugal, “relative to March 2022, private deposits of residents in the banks fell 0.3%. This negative annual variation rate means a reduction in deposits which has not happened since 2017.
The reason is that Government savings bonds are offering better returns because of the higher interest rates which banks have not been passing on to customers. In March alone these bonds registered an increase of stock by €3,549 million, up 14.1% on February, by the end of March totalling €28.6Bn.
In the first quarter of this year, families applied over €9Bn of their savings in national savings bonds, 60 times more than the €150 million registered in the first quarter of 2022.