The rate on deposits of the largest banks fell to 5% per annum

At the end of May, the average maximum rate of deposits in the top 10 largest banks in terms of the volume of ruble funds of the population fell to 5.039% - a historical minimum since 2009, writes . Vedomosti

The fall in the average maximum rate in the second decade of May compared to the first was 0.36 percentage points. Bank deposit rates fell continuously from the summer of 2019 until March 2020, when there was a slight increase. The resumption of the decline is associated with a reduction in the key rate by 0.5 percentage points, to 5.5%.

In the third decade of May, four of the top 10 banks further reduced the return on deposits, including Gazprombank, Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank, MKB. In particular, the maximum retail rate at Sberbank dropped from 4.7% to 4.15% per annum.

Banks are lowering rates in anticipation of a new reduction in the key rate, according to experts interviewed by Vedomosti. In addition, large banks do not have an urgent need for liquidity, as they can borrow on the interbank loan market, where rates have again gone below the key one, said Sergey Grishunin, head of the rating service of the National Rating Agency.

The downward trend in the key rate suggests that depositors should expect a further fall in loan rates, predicts Mikhail Polukhin, Deputy Director of the Financial Institutions Ratings Group at ACRA.