Deposits rebounding at Uruguayan banks

Gross total deposits at the two largest banks in Uruguay have risen over the past five years. According to S&P Global, core customer deposits remain the main funding source in the Uruguayan banking system; however, around 10% of deposits come from neighbouring Argentina (as of December 2019) because of the latter’s recent financial turmoil, including a monetary crisis in 2018, which led to a severe devaluation of the Argentine peso.

At Banco de la Republica, the largest bank in Uruguay by assets and Tier 1 capital as of end 2020, gross total deposits increased 10.6% between 2016 and 2020 to reach $15.6bn. Likewise, deposits at Banco Santander Uruguay, the second-largest lender by assets and fourth largest by Tier 1, increased 11.7% during the same five-year period to reach $5.1bn, according to The Banker Database.

In Argentina, gross total deposits at Banco de la Nación, the largest bank in the country by assets and Tier 1, fell 46.9% between 2016 and 2019, while gross total deposits at Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, the second-largest bank in the country by assets and fourth largest by Tier 1, fell 45.9% between 2017 and 2019. However, both Argentine banks saw an uptick in deposits in 2020, of 8.5% and 21.4%, respectively, as people sought a financial safe haven during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trends identified using The Banker Database, an online database providing comprehensive financial data and insight for 4000 of the world's leading banks in 190 countries. Contact us.