How EU Banks Have Stashed Cash, Until Now…
Austrian Banks‘ Cash Has Almost Quintupled Since 2014
We have written a lot about banks increasing their cash positions during times of negative ECB interest rates. Last we found out that above all German banks increased their cash holdings very strongly whereas the rest of the Eurozone did not so much (check HERE). The data sets we analysed did, however, not provide time series for other European countries. Thus, we couldn’t say which country was growing bank cash and by how much.
It took some (well a lot…) more research, but now we have identified alternative data sets which allow for a more granular breakdown.
As a consequence, we can finally present results for all Eurozone countries:
– Three countries clearly stand out in terms of banks‘ cash growth since Q2 2014
– Austrian banks really reached another dimension of cash holdings
– But also Finland tops Germany
– And six countries even recorded negative growth
German Banks Have Added €34bn of Cash Since 2014
In absolute terms, German banks clearly dominate cash growth with €34bn since 2014. This represents 69% of total Eurozone growth of €50bn for the period. Austrian banks rank 2nd with a cash growth of €12bn or 24% share. Other countries are literally marginal to cash growth.