More than seven out of ten have deposits of … a thousand, which at least shows that in reality most people have little money left to save large sums. However, small deposits up to 1000 euros account for only 1.4% of total deposits or 2.68 billion, according to the details of the Deposit and Investment Guarantee Fund (TEKE). On the other hand, although large depositors make up only 0.7% of the total, they account for 42% of all deposits or 80.6 billion euros.

In particular, according to TEKE data on bank deposits until December 31, 2022, they amounted to 191.87 billion euros at the end of 2022 compared to 179.97 billion euros at the end of 2021, an increase of 6.61%. Of these, €134.03 billion are deposits of less than €100,000 and the remaining €57.84 billion are non-guaranteed eligible deposits, i.e. deposits over €100,000 (note: deposits in Greece are guaranteed up to €100,000 per each contributor). However, large contributions, i.e. those that exceed 100,000 euros have increased in 2022 compared to 2021 much more than the rest. In particular, they increased by 13.9%, or about 7 billion euros, while deposits up to 100,000 euros increased over the same period by 3.79%, or about 5 billion euros.

72.5% of depositors are small depositors, as they hold deposits up to 1,000 euros. In 2022, 12.4% of depositors had deposits over 1,000 euros and up to 5,000 euros, from 5,001 to 50,000 euros – 13%, from 50,001 to 100,000 euros – 1.4% and over 100,000 euros – only 0.7% of depositors.

Deposits with an account balance of up to EUR 1,000 as of December 31, 2022 accounted for only 1.4% of the total, 5.1% also refer to small deposits from EUR 1,001 to EUR 5,000, 35.7% refer to deposits from 5,001 to 50,000 euros, while 15.7% refers to deposits from 50,001 to 100,000 euros.

Comparison to pandemic years

Although the difference with the two years of the pandemic is not very big, in 2022, always based on the data of the TEKE annual accounts, there is an increase in the percentage of deposits over 100,000 euros. In 2020, they accounted for 36.5% of all deposits, in 2021 they increased to 40%, and last year to 42%. In addition, the share of very small depositors with bank balances up to €1,000 increased in 2022: in 2020 they amounted to 71.9%, about the same as in 2021 (71.8%), and in 2022 increased to 72.5%.

On the other hand, the largest losses are observed among depositors with deposits from 1,000 to 5,000 euros, that is, small depositors. The share of those with deposits between EUR 1,001 and EUR 5,000 was 13.8% in 2020 and 13.1% in 2021, after which it fell to 12.4%. One possible explanation is that while many had slightly larger bank balances in 2020-21 as a result of lockdown cuts in household spending, economic and social activity will fully recover in 2022, but also with the accuracy of “sweeping” many resorted to savings.