We await further announcements with great.............interest!
I reckon the government would see this as denting bank profits, which they may not want to do given the history of near collapse. Better to let them rip off the consumer.Instead of all the blah, blah, ... and talk of pressuring banks to up the Savers Rates, the simplest and most effective thing the Government could do is to instruct the NTMA to increase interest rates on all Saving certs and products immediately to 3% or 4%, publicise this widely including how to apply online and watch as thousands of savings start leaving the banks
This would have an immediate effect on the savings rates offered by the banks
But NTMA are tax free so their 2.66 % is like 4% anywhere elseny increase would be welcome, but they may still not be paying anything close to ECB. And with a recent ECB hike, they should be increasing rates anyways.
What would you want? Banks to ring their customers to tell them to change accounts? I have been a customer in an Irish bank for 25 years. To get the best interests, one always had to shop around and informed themselves. I had bank accounts in other juridictions, it was exactly the same.This whole deposit rate increases thing just highlights the lack of financial literacy among the general public, politicians and media. McGrath announced recently that increases should be coming soon. Now the banks have put up rates on some select products such as term deposits and regular saver accounts with plenty of restrictions. Of the €150bn on deposit I'd imagine these increased rates cover a tiny fraction so banks will continue to rake it in. Yet it's now being presented by the politicians and the media as the banks finally catching up and "job done". It's nothing but window dressing and they need to be called out on it. The media seem to just take the bank PR release and run with it as a story with no questions asked.
I think the points Djimi made were quite an accurate assessment of how the banks are operating. It is a failure of the media & government not to point this out. In other larger jurisdictions there is a more competitive market so market forces and competition regulate against this kind of behavior. Ireland is just too small and our banking sector tiny with only three real banks so cartel forces come into play.What would you want? Banks to ring their customers to tell them to change accounts? I have been a customer in an Irish bank for 25 years. To get the best interests, one always had to shop around and informed themselves. I had bank accounts in other juridictions, it was exactly the same.