Portuguese banks have consistently paid among the lowest deposit rates in the euro area in recent months, and regulators are finally moving to make those rates easier to compare. This week, a Banco de Portugal board member confirmed the central bank is building a tool to let savers compare deposit rates across banks, following a pointed recommendation from Portugal's competition watchdog.
The trigger
On July 22, Banco de Portugal administrator Francisca Guedes de Oliveira told parliament's budget and finance committee that the central bank is developing a savings-product comparison tool that would include deposit rates, so consumers can more easily shop around. The announcement came two days after Portugal's Competition Authority (Autoridade da Concorrência, or AdC) published the final version of a study on consumer mobility in Portuguese retail banking, recommending that Banco de Portugal extend its existing fee-comparison tool to cover savings products too.
Why it matters: the numbers
Portuguese depositors have been getting a noticeably worse deal than their euro-area peers for a while now. In January, new retail term deposits of up to a year paid 1.34% on average, a nearly two-year low, against roughly 1.82% across the euro area. On €10,000 in savings, that gap works out to about €49 a year in foregone interest. Back in November, Portugal had the fourth-lowest deposit rate in the euro area, beating only Cyprus, Greece, and Slovenia. Rates have ticked back up slightly since: the AdC's own figures for this spring show 1.37% for retail deposits against a 1.77% euro-area average, and 1.60% against 1.91% for non-financial companies.
The trend line bounces around month to month, but the persistent gap to the euro-area average is the real story, and it's the gap the AdC wants competition, not charity, to close. Portuguese banks have also faced criticism for passing higher ECB rates through to borrowers more quickly than to savers, which has contributed to the gap.
What already exists
Banco de Portugal isn't starting from zero. Since 2018, its Comparador de Comissões (Fee Comparison Tool), hosted on the Portal do Cliente Bancário, has let consumers compare bank fees, account maintenance, debit and credit cards, cash withdrawals, transfers, across roughly 200 institutions and 93 distinct fee types. It also standardized terminology across banks, a genuinely useful side effect. Notably, the tool is designed purely as disclosure: it doesn't recommend or advise consumers on which product to choose. The new savings tool would presumably follow the same model.
The bigger picture: making it easier to switch banks
The AdC study's headline finding is that 69% of consumers surveyed hadn't checked current-account terms at a different bank in the past five years, even though the authority estimates that simply searching for alternatives raises the odds of switching banks by 7.2 percentage points. Use of Portugal's existing account-switching service, meanwhile, remains minimal.
The comparison tool is only one piece of a broader package: the AdC issued 17 recommendations to lawmakers and Banco de Portugal aimed at making retail banking easier to compare, easier to switch, and more competitive. The underlying logic connecting all 17 is straightforward, if consumers can compare products more easily and switch banks with less hassle, banks have a stronger incentive to compete on rates, fees, and service. Among the most significant proposals: extending the fee-comparison tool to cover savings products; creating a simpler, more centralized bank-switching process; reducing barriers to refinancing mortgages by reforming early-repayment fees; strengthening standardized disclosures for mortgages, package accounts, and credit intermediaries; and developing a national strategy for open banking and open finance.
Where the bigger impact may lie
For many households, the savings comparison tool may not end up being the biggest change. The study suggests that easier bank switching and lower barriers to refinancing mortgages could have an even greater effect, by making it simpler for customers to move to banks offering better rates or lower borrowing costs.
Portugal isn't pioneering this
The AdC's research draws on similar consumer-mobility studies from competition authorities in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and New Zealand, all of which found comparably low switching behavior in retail banking. Portugal is late to this regulatory playbook, not pioneering it, worth keeping in mind for anyone tempted to read this as a uniquely Portuguese problem, or a uniquely bold Portuguese fix.
Open questions
Banco de Portugal gave no date for the savings tool's launch, guedes de Oliveira's comment described work in progress, not a rollout timeline. It's also not yet clear whether the tool will cover only standard term deposits, or extend to structured deposits, savings accounts, and certificates as well.