Fixed interests outgrow inflation

In retail banking, competition is beginning to shift from lending to attracting deposits, as increasingly more banks are offering fixed interest rates at levels considerably exceeding inflation.
After having aggressively promoted RON-denominated loans for almost one year, bankers are now in the situation where they need to “refill” their coffers with higher deposits from customers, so that they may continue to grant loans. A year
ago, deposit interest rates were slipping below the level of inflation as bankers no longer prized customers’ money, boasting high liquidities.
Now, banks are offering interest rates exceeding, by almost two percentage points, the annualised rate of inflation. BCR, the biggest bank in the
system, launched one-month and three-month deposits with a fixed rate of interest. The bank pays interest rates ranging between 7.05% and 7.5% per annum, depending on the deposited sum and maturity. Other banks offering fixed interests for deposits include BRD-SocGen, CEC, Banca Transilvania and Bancpost.