Bulgarian Banks See New Growth in Deposits
Bulgarian banks have recorded a fresh and significant growth in deposits in August in comparison with the same period last year most probably thanks to Greek and Romanian nationals, who rush to stash their savings here, official data shows.
The deposits of citizens and companies in local banks have towered to BGN 603 M in August 2001 in comparison with BGN 175 M a year ago.
Thus the total amount of deposits of citizens hit a record-high BGN 30 B at the end of August 2011, marking an annual increase by BGN 3.3 B, while the savings of companies (other than credit institutions) increased over the last twelve months by BGN 2.15 B to BGN 21.1 B.
There was however no break-down of the figures into Bulgarian and foreign-owned accounts.
There has been recently a noticeable trend among Greek and Romanian citizens and businesses, who prefer to open deposit accounts in Bulgarian banks, bankers have commented.
The Bulgarian banks stability and their more attractive interest rate policy are the main reasons for the interest of Greek and Romanian citizens and companies, according to the bankers.
Meanwhile a survey has shown that over the last five years only 45% of Bulgaria's population disposed of sufficient incomes to be able to put aside regular savings, predominantly small sums of BGN 100 per month.
A recent analysis by Bulgaria's biggest bank UniCredit Bulbank showed an interesting trend - in times of crisis people with larger deposits tend to increase the amounts in the bank accounts, while those with smaller savings have them downloaded.
Moreover, it appeared that over two thirds of the money deposited in banks are in the hands of just 5% of the households in the country. (Source: Sofia News Agency)