Are the banks robbing savers?

More houses needed, yes.

I think the impact of the eviction ban hasnt evolved just yet.

Fintechs will never get a hold on the mortgage market as they use investment to fund lending.

Investors will always want more than ECB, so it won't happen.

Look at dillosk/ics - a non bank lender and currently the most expensive

BOI made 1 Billion profit last year... That fuels their bonuses, dividends & pay increases... Why don't they pass on the interest rate benefits? I think we know the answer!

The governement don't decide who to evict... the banks manage that process, under the guidance of the central bank and as part of the judicial system which is independent of the goverment. The law of the land informs them how to judge cases.

The law has been set up by successive governments to bias keeping people in their properties, even if they haven't paid anything in years. These are political decisions. It is easier to make sure there are no dramatic sob stories in the press which are very noticeable. What is less noticeable is the high cost we all pay to pay for this system of basically "unsecured home loans" that we have in Ireland. It must be a unique system.

We have calls now for people on trackers to be subsidised as the rate they wanted to track has gone up, it is doing exactly what they wanted. The rate was on the floor for years, with those lucky enough to have a tracker paying very low rates for a decade or so. Only in Ireland would you have calls for the government to help in a situation like that.

Irish banks can take our deposits, pay low interest rates and deposit the money at the ECB earning the deposit rate (3.75%). Unless there is competition they will keep the low rates. I am thinking of using raisin.ie to open an account in one of the other EU countries where you can get 3.5% or so.

Yes. The law of the land is influenced by the govt. Thats what i mean. The govt and central bank arent going to take any hardline approaches on non paying tenants whilst there is a housing crisis.

Govt influence these policies.

Interesting discussion lads.

Being non-Irish but having lived here for nearly 10 years it's crystalclear to me that this country has a dysfunctional bankingsystem.

I like this island, but there's just something deeply fraudulent going on with regards to the bankingsystem.

Just one example, if you sign up for a free Bunq savingsaccount, as an Irish resident you get 1,56% on their instant access savingsaccount.

Dutch residents get 2,46% and 3,71% is paid on USD and GBP accounts. This to me is intolerable. Seriously, what the ....

There simply is a cartel of banks here (mainly BOI,AIB and PTSB) that just cash the spread of the 3,75% ECB deposit-facility, meanwhile charging you

€72/year+transactionfees, 22% on creditcards, +10% on personal loans and giving a measly instant access account rate of 0,01%.

Again, Irish banks earn 3,74% on your instant access deposits right now.

I'm leaving out the Credit Unions, since they're useless to savers and while I applaud their involvement in local Irish communities (Richard Werner advocates this system of small local communitybanks), they aren't part of the cartel as far as I'm concerned. They serve a different purpose, much more meaningful than the big predatory banks.

This is what you get when a fraudulent system becomes untenable. Decades of deregulation, moneyprinting, speculation and lack of leadership has brought us here, which is the end of the road. The sheer incompetence and dishonesty of this generation of politicians is astounding. And most of this 'leadership' is forced on us through unelected officials.

It's like watching a forestfire, except the firefighters use petrol as an extinguishing agent. (interestrate-cuts and QE are the petrol)

It's going to be an historical 12 months, I guarantee you. The era of fraudulent cheap centralbank money has ended, but some people just cling on to the fantasy of a 'pivot' or a return to said era.

Thanks for letting me vent and if I may, I'd like to share some comments. It all depends on the reasons for having savings in the bank. If it's for longterm purposes it's an entirely different scenario than when it's parked there for a purchase in the near future (for example a deposit on a house or to buy a car/motorbike/etc).

Obviously, the last 15 years have been utterly insane and the reality of negative interestrates goes against every single common sense principle.

(This was just another blatant example of the corruption and rot in the system)

I wrote some short-term and some long-term solutions here, but since I'm a new member and also since I can't give personal financial advice, I decided it's better to leave those out. The other thing is that most folks here already know those solutions, but they may vary from person to person, from the willingness for risktaking. Personally, I take zero risk.

I will say this, though. What not to do:

-buying hyped up stocks. Please, if you are inexperienced with trading, don't do it.

-blindlessly following Youtuber hype hysteria. (The Rolex mania being a prime example of that)

-don't make decisions based on panic. Think about what you think about. And think about it some more.

Thanks for reading. I'm pretty p*ssed off about the current reality in Ireland. It's crisis after crisis, emergency after emergency and I might be wrong, but the mood has just been nothing short of depressing as of late.

Cheers.

Harry