Four out of ten Romanians manage to save in the pandemic period

According to the study “Digitalization of the banking system” in Romanian perception conducted in the last month of last year by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES) commissioned by the Romanian Banks Association, during the pandemic, about four out of ten Romanians managed to save. The percentage is significantly lower, compared to the period before the pandemic, when about 68% of respondents said they had the ability to save. On the other hand, according to the same study, men and people in general in urban areas manage to save during this period. The above-mentioned survey was conducted in the last month of last year on a sample of 1479 adult respondents, of which 1158 are users of banking services.

If they had large sums of money and therefore would like to save, 28% of respondents would invest in their education or that of family members, 23% would deposit the amounts related to these savings to the bank, 16% would have entrepreneurial initiatives in while 10% would buy currency. Only 9% of respondents say they would keep cash in the house.

Despite the dangers generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, 78% of Romanians still prefer direct interaction with an official to setting up a bank deposit while only 14% want strictly online interaction.

Two thirds of the population’s savings are made in the national currency, with most deposits being made in the short term. Thus, more than half of the banks’ balances are made up of the population, the number of depositors at the participating credit institutions FGDB currently amounting to 14.9 million people, of which 13.8 million are only individuals.

In fact, despite a recent decline in the share of people saving, the rate of growth of customer deposits has increased rapidly at an annual rate of 3-4 percent above the pre-pandemic level. The balance of population deposits is currently estimated at 410 billion lei.

On the other hand, the banking system provides financial intermediation, one of its most important objectives being to protect the economies of the population and companies. Thus, the Romanian banks have the necessary resources for continuous lending, the credit / deposit indicator being placed at 68.88% at the end of the third quarter of 2020 while the solvency indicator is 3 times higher than the minimum allowed, reaching 22.76%.

Source: www.banknews.ro