Is There a Risk of a Mass Withdrawal from Deposits? A Banker’s Opinion

As of mid-August, the ratio of hryvnia to foreign currency deposits stands at 80% to 20%, meaning that hryvnia deposits dominate, and this ratio is unlikely to change significantly in the next 3-4 months.

This was stated by Dmytro Zamotaiev, Director of the Retail Business Department at Globus Bank.

However, the expert does not rule out that in September-October, the share of hryvnia deposits could decrease slightly—by 3-5% compared to August. According to him, there are two main reasons for this: 
1) The planned expiration of deposit terms and a slight increase in the number of new depositors, resulting in a negative balance;
2) Natural concerns among citizens about the future of the hryvnia in light of a more noticeable inflationary impact.

Zamotaiev believes that a mass "flight" of clients to foreign currency deposits is unlikely. For the past 1.5 years, there has been a slow but steady decrease in interest rates on foreign currency deposits.

"From January 2023 to August 2024, dollar deposit rates decreased by an average of 1-1.2 percentage points, while euro deposits 'slimmed down' by about 0.5 percentage points. For comparison, inflation in the U.S. this year averages 3%. This means that purchasing foreign currency just to store it results in a slow loss of up to 3% of savings value annually. Meanwhile, due to low interest rates on foreign currency deposits, depositors indirectly lose up to 1.5% of the value of their funds," Zamotaiev concluded.