The total savings of Dominicans in the financial intermediation entities supervised by the Superintendency of Banks (SB) amounted to RD$2.1 trillion at the close of 2021, equivalent to nearly 40% of nominal gross domestic product (GDP).
Thus, deposits experienced an increase of RD$271 million, representing a growth of 17.3% during the past year.
The data is from the second half-yearly report “Savings Trends in the Dominican Republic: Perspective from the financial system’s deposits, published by the SB”.
According to the analysis, this increase in deposits ratifies the confidence in the financial system and makes national savings one of the main drivers of the economic recovery, after the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Savings Instruments
A breakdown of the system’s deposits by type of instrument shows that 43.8% of the total balance is placed in savings accounts, followed by securities held by the public and checking accounts, whose share of total deposits amounts to 21.4% and 21.3%, respectively. Time deposits represented 13.5%.
Deposits from the public continue to be the main source of economic resources for financial intermediation activities, representing 85.2% of the system’s total liabilities.
Multiple banks concentrate 89.3% of total deposits (RD$1.91 billion). The rest is distributed in 8.8% of savings and loan associations, 1.6% of savings and loan banks, while credit corporations and public financial intermediation entities account for 0.2% and 0.2%, respectively.
At the end of last December, deposits in foreign currency represented 29.7% of the total, a value considered stable within its historical fluctuation range. The U.S. dollar continued to dominate in this category, with a 97.9% share, leaving the euro in second place, with 2.1%.
The eastern and metropolitan regions were the regions with the highest year-on-year increases at the end of December 2021, with an expansion of 21% and 20%, respectively, followed by the northern and southern regions with growth rates of 11% and 9% each.
The report identifies households as the main category of depositors in the financial system, with accumulated values in the order of RD$1,162 billion (54% of the total), followed by companies with RD$509 billion, equivalent to 24%.
