Banks are starting to fight for deposits, one of the reasons being liquidity problems, according to Bank Pekao CEO Leszek Skiba.
“The liquidity problem is such that banks are scrambling for deposits,” Skiba said in an interview, commenting on the recent wave of deposit interest rate hikes at a number of banks. Among others, a week earlier, Bank Pekao offered a promotional savings account interest rate of 8%.
“Banks are having trouble with outflows due to various factors, such as we had a wave of retail bond purchases, but also with the collateral that banks have to prepare as part of deals for companies,” He added.
Skiba believes, however, that this war on deposits will not prove devastating to the market in the long term.
“We are seeing a big wave of funds moving from ‘free’ current accounts to interest-bearing deposits. And this is more important than whether the interest rate on deposits is 5 or 7%,” said the CEO.
Bank Pekao is part of the PZU Group, the largest financial group in Central and Eastern Europe. The bank has been present on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1998. The bank’s total assets amounted to PLN 250.57 billion at the end of 2021.
Source: Bank Pekao and ISBnews
