In February, new subscriptions to savings certificates (CA) were again lower than refunds, causing the total balance to fall by €26 million, to €34,016 million, according to data released this month by the Bank of Portugal.
This exacerbates the trend of reducing orders in this savings instrument, which has already been observed since the end of 2023, and which is also occurring in Treasury Certificates (CT), which lost 143 million euros, bringing the amount invested in this product down to 10,691 million euros. .
The total of the two savings instruments amounted to 44,707 million euros, 160 million euros less than in January.
According to data released last week by the agency that manages public debt, IGCP, CA purchases in the second month of the year amounted to 206 million euros, while recoveries amounted to 233 million euros.
In CT, purchases are still low, reaching 2 million euros in the same month, well below the recovery amount of 146 million euros.
The reduction in fees for certified credit accounts, in June 2023, and cash transfers several years ago, explain the reduced appetite of savers for public savings products, which, among other advantages, are exempt from paying commissions.
Reducing producer wages Criticized by CTT president, an entity that had an exclusive resale operation for the product. In an interview with Business magazine And the Antenna 1“There are two things the Treasury can do,” says João Pinto. “One is to raise the limit per account, which is 50 thousand euros, and the other is to look at profitability, which has lost its competitiveness and now it was necessary to restore it.”
The director also admitted in the interview that “what was approved in the state’s general budget [a captação de 3,5 mil milhões de euros em 2024] “Not in line with current placement levels,” he said, although he acknowledges increased subscriptions in the second half of the year.
The change in CA coincided with increased profitability, linked to the three-month Euribor interest rate, which was generating an outflow of amounts invested in bank deposits of the country's product. With this decision, the maximum base rate decreased from 3.5% in Series E to only 2.5% in Series F, which is the only one that accepts new subscriptions.
This change is more profound than it may seem, as there is no longer a single percentage point added to the average Euribor value for the month preceding the IPO, as was the case in the previous series. It follows that a possible fall in the Euribor rate, which still represents its base, to a value below 2.5% will lead to a decline in the wage.
As in the previous series, there are retention bonuses that are added to the base rate, but they have also decreased, becoming 0.25 percentage points between years two and five, and reaching 1.75 points in the last two years of the subscription period.
The subscription period was extended from 10 to 15 years, and the maximum subscription amount per saver was reduced from 250,000 euros to 50,000 euros.
Greater competition in placement
With the launch of Series F, the possibility of selling CA, which until now was exclusive to CTT and to the state, has been expanded to include banks and other financial institutions through IGCP's online subscription service and some citizens' spaces.
Debuting in this expansion is Banco BIG, which has made the product available since March 14.
Caixa Geral de Depósitos has also expressed interest in this option, but has not yet implemented it.
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