PTSB increases interest rates for savers

Rate increase comes just a week before Irish banks are set to report over €4.5bn in annual profit

The rate on its demand deposit product for business customers is to increase to 1%, with the bank also announcing a new 32-day notice deposit account for business customers with an interest rate of 2%. Picture Andres Poveda

PTSB has said it is raising some of its deposit rates and is launching a new notice account for business customers.

Taking effect from Tuesday, March 5th, the bank, which recently rebranded from Permanent TSB, is raising the rate on its six-month fixed term deposit account by 0.75 percentage points to 1.75%.

It says this is the highest rate in the market for personal six-month fixed-term deposits.

The rate on its demand deposit product for business customers is to increase to 1%, with the bank also announcing a new 32-day notice deposit account for business customers with an interest rate of 2%.

PTSB said this is the seventh time it has increased personal deposit rates since November 2022, adding that it will continue to keep deposit rates under review.

Rival banks are now set to come under further pressure to bring in higher interest rates for savers, with Ireland's response to rising deposit rates by the ECB being one of the worst in Europe. 

The rate increase comes just one week before the three main Irish banks are set to report a combined annual profit of over €4.5bn, a bumper haul that is set to put the focus back on local regulators and the lack of competition in the Irish banking market.

Davy forecasts Bank of Ireland will post an underlying pre-tax profit of €2.1bn, and estimates AIB will report an underlying pre-tax of €2.3bn. For PTSB, the broker estimates the lender will post a pre-tax profit of €87m.