Make necessity a virtue. Far from cowering in the current scenario of high interest rates, digital banking has chosen to take advantage of this situation to grow in customers. The reluctance of traditional entities to adapt the remuneration of deposits to the levels at which the European Central Bank (ECB) maintains the reference money rates has been used in recent months by neobanks to facilitate the acquisition of new users. . Aryans. A trend that has continued during this first quarter of 2024, accompanied in some cases by an improvement in promotions.
Thus, while the first swords have avoided entering this war, with specific offers focused on very specific profiles such as large savers, the new ‘players’ of the financial sector have found in the payment of liabilities a vein with which to gain market share. From a classification in which only firms that operate under the umbrella of the Spanish Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD) are included, the list includes notable entities such as MyInvestor, which has recently increased its bet by 4%, although for this purpose You should hire an automated portfolio management.
They also have a 3% deposit for three months – the same as for six and twelve months – which is among the first positions on the list and stands up to that offered by WiZink, which gives a 3% APR for twelve months. and 2.75% APR for 18 months. OpenBank completes the shortlist, whose deposits offer more than 3% profitability, as long as the payroll is domiciled in the bank. At the current time, one of the few entities that compete in this sense with digital firms is Banca March, through its combined 3.3% APR deposit linked to fixed-income fund portfolios.
Revolut or EVO distance themselves from this race, advocating instead for monetary or remunerated accounts, which is, precisely, the great bet of traditional entities, in which the interest on deposits barely exceeds 2% due to the excess liquidity of the that they have. THESE CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE LEAD THEM TO EXPERIENCE A GROWTH IN CUSTOMERS SINCE THEY STARTED TO RISE THE RATE, GOING FROM BEING FOCUSED TO BECOME A REAL ALTERNATIVE TO THE BIG BANKS, MORE FOCUSED ON THE CAPTURE OF PAYROLLS FROM NEW USERS THAN ON REWARDING THE SAVINGS OF THE Who are already users.
This is the x-ray that the sector shows a few months before the ECB begins the withdrawal process, something that is expected to occur in the second half of the year. In this regard, HelpMyCash warns that the prevailing trend in the coming months will be to cut remuneration as entities begin to adapt their commercial showcase to the new monetary policy scenario. “We are in a moment of hiatus and certain uncertainty in which, after a downward adjustment of interest rates on longer-term maturities, this has slowed down,” they comment from Banqmi, the financial products comparator of Saving. Thus, they believe that once the ECB begins to reverse the process of raising rates, they will be forced to adapt the interest on liabilities to the new situation.
The strategy followed by neobanks has helped ensure their penetration in Spain. A study released by Funcas and KPMG at the end of 2023 shows that its market share already reaches 30%, with a rebound of 60% in the last three years due to the greater use of digital banking, which exceeds the European average. . (70% vs. 60%). However, from this starting point, its ability to maintain its presence and continue growing will depend on its ability to generate profits and offer a wide catalog of financial services, they point out in said report.
