Never before in more than a decade have Spaniards had so much money deposited in bank accounts in the euro zone. The political uncertainty that Spain has been experiencing since the elections last July, together with the fact that in Europe people pay much more for savings, has caused a leak moderate, but constant, towards our community neighbors. You have to go back to January 2012 to find a similar figure.
In total, residents hoard more than 78 billion euros in the rest of the countries of the euro zone – especially in Holland, Germany and Ireland – and, of this amount, almost 50,000 million are in term deposits in that search for profitability and a slightly higher tax treatment friendly. It is half of all the money that Spaniards have in time deposits in our country, which surpassed the 100 billion euro barrier in September, for the first time in three years. This implies that 1 in every 3 euros that a Spaniard has in a bank deposited on time is abroad.
In the last year the money deposited in European accounts has increased by 18%, but it is true that the great boost has been seen since this summer, with almost 10,000 million euros more. According to data from the Bank of Spain at the end of September, the money that leaves Spain does so in search of profitability because the majority ends up in time deposits.
Currently, a total of 33.6 billion euros is in deposits, the majority of which have a maturity of more than two years. The equivalent of another 15.7 billion euros is also found in deposits in other currencies. It is 14% more than a year ago.
These data, obviously, do not reflect the tensions of the last week due to the agreements signed between the PSOE, Junts and ERC. The largest private banks in Spain consulted by EL MUNDO assure that, for the moment, “Clients are calm” and, above all, “they have not detected requests to move money outside of Spain”. Nor the largest fund managers in the country. One of them assures that “the political noise is always there” in recent times, and it still does not affect their business. “We have been in legal uncertainty for years and the market has already discounted it,” says another financial source.