The Dutch online bank Bunq has stepped up its push for Irish business with a new fixed deposit account offering a guaranteed interest rate of 2.46 per cent for a period of at least three months.
Bunq is the second-largest neobank in Europe and its new Easy Savings plan coincides with the start of a cycle which could see rates across the euro zone banking sector embark upon a downward trajectory.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is set to cut its lending rates by a quarter of a point this week, a move which may signal the start of a series of rate cuts in the months ahead although no significant movement on deposit rates or variable lending rates from retail banks is expected in the short term.
Bunq is one of the largest fintechs operating in Europe with more than 12.5 million users worldwide.
In 2021 it deepened its Irish footprint when it bought CapitalFlow, a Dublin-based business lender that works with small firms and property investors. A year later it started offering its Irish-based customers international bank account numbers for the first time.
Over the past 12 months it has doubled its user base in Ireland and has seen its deposits climb by well over 100 per cent since the start of the year.
The fintech has been aggressively chasing market share in Ireland in recent months and is increasingly focused on the €150 billion household savings on deposit with Irish banks.
“The major advantage of an on-demand savings account is instant access to your money; the disadvantage usually is that you have no guarantee on the interest rate you will get,” said Mark Coen of financial advisers moneysherpa.ie. He said it could be a “win win for users [who will get] instant access and a guarantee the rate sticks at 2.46 per cent”.
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