First Million: New-Type Savings Account Collected Over a Million Euros in Deposits in Its First Week

In just one week, Estonian people deposited more than one million euros into a new type of flexible savings account offered by Bigbank, which allows earning 2.5% interest while also being able to withdraw all their money with just three days' notice, without losing the interest earned so far.

"Money has a price today and that price is not cheap at all. Therefore, every person must ask themselves whether their savings are just sitting there or earning the best possible return," commented Jonna Pechter, head of Bigbank Estonia, who believes that the rapid success of the new type of savings account suggests only that Estonian people's financial literacy is clearly on the rise. "Bigbank is not a universal bank and does not yet offer current account services, which is why new savings account holders also need to make a small effort by logging into our secure website," explained Pechter.

"Slightly over a third, or 36% of all depositors from the opening week were aged 26-35 years old, which shows the care that younger people are taking in managing their savings," said Pechter, noting that the vast majority, 92% of those who opened a savings account in the opening week, were private individuals, although Bigbank has recently also begun offering a product with similar terms to businesses that want to put their free funds to work on a so-called demand account.

"It is not always possible to put money into fixed-term deposits or other instruments, as in difficult economic times there may be a need to use these savings. This is why most of Estonian private customers' money sits in large universal banks in regular accounts, which mostly do not earn any interest. Bigbank's savings account offers the opportunity to earn interest on that money too," explained Jonna Pechter.

With Bigbank's innovative savings account, a customer can, with three days' notice, withdraw all their money if needed without any additional costs or charges, and without losing the interest earned so far. Compared to a fixed-term deposit, the customer also does not have to worry about getting the best offer – if interest rates rise, they rise for everyone simultaneously, equally and automatically, and the customer does not have to do anything on their part. Opening a savings account with Bigbank does not entail any service fees or costs for the customer, nor is there a minimum amount set for opening the account. Like all bank deposits in Estonia, the savings account is also insured up to 100,000 euros by the state Deposit Guarantee Fund.

Bigbank has been offering savings accounts in the German, Austrian and Dutch markets since the beginning of 2020. The product has been popular among customers and has received considerable positive feedback as a good opportunity to earn much better interest on idle money than offered by "home banks". From May of this year, the bank is also offering the savings account product in the Finnish market.

At the end of the half-year, Bigbank's deposit portfolio totaled 1.6 billion euros, with savings accounts accounting for 721 million euros of that, growing by 94 million euros in the last six months (+15%).