Bank deposits jump by €2bn

Customer deposits held by the four State-covered banks jumped by €2 billion in December, and have been steadily on the rise since September, according to new figures published by the Department of Finance.

Deposits across the four institutions — Bank of Ireland, AIB, Permanent TSB and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide) — have been stable “for a number of months”, with net inflows evident since the third quarter of 2011, the department said in its latest deposit survey.

On a combined basis, deposits held by the banks amounted to €147bn as of the end of December. This was up from €145bn in November and €144bn in October.

The deposit figures, at the four banks, have risen every month since August, when they amounted to an aggregate €140bn (unchanged from July’s figure), before rising to €142bn in September.

Deposit levels reached their 2011 peak in January of that year, when they stood at €155bn and steadily declined on a monthly basis until September’s gradual pick-up.

The latest figures also show that €102bn worth of deposits came from the private sector, in December — €1bn more than was the case in November.

The figures follow on from recent Central Bank statistics, which showed continued declines in household lending in the final couple of months of last year, but increases in deposits.

However, the Department of Finance — which has only recently begun recording deposit figures — said its calculations offer a more accurate picture of deposit flows at the four guarantee-covered institutions than the Central Bank figures, which include intra-group deposits and exclude deposits held at overseas subsidiaries.

“We believe that this data set represents the most accurate snapshot of the deposit picture at the covered banks,” the department added.