Best Savings Rates are in Public Banks

Public banks in Costa Rica are competing with the state, paying almost 10% interest in order to raise funds in local currency.

Monday, June 4, 2012

The three state banks and the Banco Popular are offering an interest rate of 10%, while private banks are paying 9% on deposits on terms of between 5 and 7 months.

These periods are the most popular, which is why the government is trying to capture more in this segment, putting pressure on state banks who are also looking for resources in colons because they make the most loans in this currency, while the private banks are largely removed from that segment, said Luis Carlos Mora, chief financial officer of Banco Nacional.

"According to the Central Bank, at the end of April, the public banks lent 86% of total loans in colones from the banking system", reported Nacion.com.

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More on this topic

Costa Rica: Interest Rates Too "Fat"

November 2012

After a warning by President Chinchilla to state commercial banks, the financial entities involved have put their interest rates on a diet.

The passive base rate, an index calculated by the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR), is a weighted average of the interest rates in colones on gross savings, negotiated by financial intermediaries resident in the country and the interest rates of collection instruments of the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance negotiated both in the primary and secondary market, each corresponding to periods of between 150 and 210 days.

Costa Rican Banks Look for Dollars Abroad

October 2012

High interest rates, the product of the Treasury’s steady increase in financing with debt, is leading banks to seek funds abroad.

In the country the average lending rate in dollars is about 11%, considerably higher than in the United States, where the average is 4%.

This gap is the result of higher government borrowing in dollars, which has increased its debt in this currency by 165% year on year.

Lending Rate Foreign Currency - Costa Rica

February 2008



National financial system average Lending Rate In Foreign Currency - Costa Rica

It corresponds to the weighted average of interest rates provided by financial intermediaries to the Central Bank every Wednesday. The weights are the amounts of new placements for each intermediary.

Saving Rate Domestic Currency - Costa Rica

February 2008



National financial system average, Savings Rates In Domestic Currency - Costa Rica

It corresponds to the weighted average of interest rates provided by financial intermediaries to the Central Bank every Wednesday. The weights are the balances of deposits of each intermediary.

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