Croatia welcomes this year's World Savings Day, marked on 31 October, "in the final phase of joining the euro zone, with the highest level of bank deposits ever," amounting to 263.4 billion kuna (€35 billion) at the end of August, the national banking association Hub said on Monday.

They said that nearly 60 percent of those deposits owned by Croatians are denominated in euros.

Hub said that the growth rate of household deposits “has been accelerating” since 2020. In August this year, they were ten percent higher year-on-year, and this year it will probably be in double-digits due to an even larger increase in bank deposits on the eve of the replacement of the local currency kuna with the euro. It is expected that most Croatians will deposit their kuna-denominated cash into bank accounts by the end of the year, so that their money benefits from automatic conversion at the fixed exchange rate, without any cost.

In August, the share of foreign currency deposits in total deposits was 59.4 percent, worth 156.5 billion kuna, while the share of kuna-denominated savings and term deposits was 7.2 percent, or 18.9 billion kuna. Furthermore, the share of deposits in transaction accounts amounted to 33.4 percent, or 88 billion kuna, out of the total household deposits.

Hub also underlined that an increasing portion of contracts between consumers and banks, as well as payment transactions, are being conducted electronically, “thanks to banks ensuring security and quality of services and continuous technological development.”

The share of consumers using banking apps was 10 percent in early 2014, but has reached 75 percent “according to the latest data,” Hub said. They added that Croatian banks have a capital ratio higher than 25 percent, making them “amongst the best capitalized banks in the world.”

(€1 = 7.53 kuna)