Favourable oil prices allowed depositors to earn 5 times higher interest

Clients of Šiaulių Bankas who have chosen a non-traditional saving instrument - term deposit with additional interest -  have earned 2.85 per cent of annual interest - which is  5 times  higher than the interest rate of a regular term deposit.

Three years ago, Šiaulių Bankas offered its clients a term deposit with additional interest. The additional interest applicable to this term deposit was linked to changes in the shares of such oil companies as Neste, Statoil and Shell.

“We offered our clients an alternative to traditional savings and invited them to choose a safe way for saving  while providing additional earning opportunities. We are pleased that the favourable situation in the oil markets allowed our customers to earn the additional  annual interest of 2.33% - which is much higher than the interest rate currently offered by the traditional time deposit on the market “, - stated Aušrinė Vilimavičiūtė, Director of Saving and Investment Products of Šiaulių Bankas.

At the end of the deposit maturity, the bank will pay customers a fixed annual interest of 0.5 per cent plus an additional   interest of 7 per cent (the annual additional interest rate is 2.33%). According to the terms of the deposit, additional interest is payable if the value of the shares of each of the above oil companies increases by 7% or more on the date specified in the deposit agreement.  Otherwise, depositors would have received the full amount of the placed deposits and fixed interest for the entire deposit period.

According to A. Vilimavičiūtė, the value of the index of oil companies correlated with the price of oil, the price of Brent type oil increased by 12 per cent in the last three years to 58.37 USA dollars per barrel. It is true that during the life of the deposit the price of oil fluctuated sharply - from 62% in September 2018 to -4 % at the beginning of 2019.

“It is clear that the oil market is experiencing volatile price spikes. The rise in oil prices was largely driven by geopolitical events in countries that are among the largest oil exporters in the world - the confrontation between the United States and Iran, and political turmoil in Venezuela, Libya. The price was also positively affected by the decline in oil reserves in the USA, the country with the largest oil production in the world. To maintain the price of oil in the market, its supply was limited by the members of OPEC, an organization of oil exporting countries, which agreed not to increase production”, - explained the specialist of Šiaulių Bankas.

Šiaulių Bankas has also distributed two additional issues of  fixed term deposits with additional interest linked to the change in the value of the price index of agricultural raw materials and gold.

During the first half of the year the deposit portfolio of Šiaulių Bankas Group increased by 7 per cent and amounted to nearly EUR 2 billion. In the deposit market Šiaulių Bankas ranks fourth among the banks operating in Lithuania. Šiaulių Bankas also offers deposits to German residents through the virtual savings platform Raisin.