Savings in the Uruguayan banking system rose by amounts never before recorded in 2021according to a report prepared by the Banking Association of Uruguay (AEBU).
According to the document, “BCU statistics, which have data since 1998, never showed deposit growth as large as that seen in 2021, of US$ 3,358 million”. AEBU also observed that “considering the two years since the arrival of the pandemic, the increase is $6,337 millionanother record if we look at two-year periods.”
In addition, according to figures published by the BCU, in 2021 the increases were proportionally higher in pesos than in foreign currenciesalthough the same thing happened in reverse —and with a greater margin— in 2020.
At the end of 2019, deposits in pesos gathered a sum equivalent to $7,949 millionwhich amounted to US$ 8,237 million at the end of 2020 (+3.6%) and US$ 9,141 million in December 2021 (+11.8%).
Likewise, savings in foreign currency in the local banking system reached $22,721 the last month of 2019, and grew to US$ 25,412 million on the same date in 2020 (+11%) and US$ 27,866 million in the same month of 2021 (+9.7%).
On the other hand, the AEBU report criticized that the growth “was not even” and that the accounts with the most funds are the ones that experienced the greatest increases. “Half of the total growth is explained by accounts with more than US$ 250 thousand. And if they add those with more than US$100,000 explain 70% of the growth,” said. Deposits greater than US$100 thousand constituted a little more than 60% of the total in February 2020.
