Determinants of Interest Rates on Time Deposits and Savings Accounts: Macro Factors, Bank Risk, and Account Features

Abstract

Using a novel dataset from the Netherlands' banking sector, we examine how macroeconomic, bank†specific, and account†specific characteristics affect the interest rates of banking products. Our results show that interest rates have become more sensitive to bank risk since the onset of the global financial crisis. More generally, we show that time deposits reflect more closely the economic environment than bank interest rates on savings accounts do. Interest rates on deposit products vary not only across, but also within banks (i.e., across account of individual banks). We find that maturity†increasing conditions (i.e., withdrawal fees for savings accounts and product maturity for time deposits) positively influence a product's interest rate.