Banks offer new deposit options

       Banks nowadays are working hard to maintain their liquidity by launching several long-term deposit options at special interest rates now that retail savers are finding the recently launched government and corporate bonds more attractive.
       Kasikorn Research Centre (KResearch) reported that commercial banks' deposit stood at Bt6.3 trillion as of July, down by Bt116 billion from Bt6.41 trillion as of June, which showed a Bt189 billion drop when compared to Bt6.49 trillion in deposits at the end of last year.
       Kannikar Chalitaporn, president of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), said bonds had affected her bank's deposits by several billion, though loan expansion did not affect the bank's liquidity by that much.
       However, she said, the bank still had liquidity because its loan to deposit ratio stood at about 90 per cent. Therefore, SCB does not need to raise its deposit rate by increasing interest rates for the rest of the year. Currently SCB offers a special deposit step rate for a period of 15 months.
       Meanwhile, TMB Bank has just launched a new two-year deposit campaign, under which customers will not be penalised for making withdrawals before the end of the term. Under this deposit deal, the bank offers six-monthly step rates at 0.75 per cent, 1.25 per cent, 1.75 per cent and 4.25 per cent. Minimum deposit is Bt25,000 and at the end of the term the entire amount needs to be withdrawn.
       Michal Szczurek, TMB Bank's chief retail banking officer, said the bank's deposits were affected by recently launched investment products, but the bank did not have a liquidity problem as its loan to deposit ratio stood at 84 per cent as of June.
       "The two-year deposit scheme provides consumers with high interest rates, flexibility and liquidity, because they will continue earning the interest even if they withdraw money before it is due. The bank expects to have at least 40,000 accounts for this product in the end of this year. Currently the bank has 4.5 million deposit accounts, of which one million are active," Szczurek said.