Greeks have begun to take money that has been stashed away since before the imposition of capital controls in 2016 and are increasingly placing their cash in banks’ term deposit accounts.
For the 10th straight month, term deposits rose in April, and increased by over three billion euros in the 10-month period.
Deposits in current accounts also increased during the same period, but to a lesser degree, as they rose by 1.78bn euros, according to data from the Bank of Greece.
Banking officials believe that the simultaneous increase in deposits for both types of accounts is due to the influx of new capital.
The greatest part of the increase last year came from the liquidation of investments in mutual funds abroad, which were made in the sixth-month period prior to the imposition of capital controls, in June, 2015.
Most of that money had been brought back to Greece by December, 2017, and now the largest share of new deposits comes from cash that had been placed in bank safety deposit boxes or stashed away elsewhere.
The increase in depositor’s trust in the banking system is expected to be reinforced by the positive results of the stress tests performed on the country’s four systemic banks.
