Inflation will probably remain at a high level in the new year. It is all the more important to get the best possible return on fixed-income investments. A study by FMH Finanzberatung shows where customers can find the best long-term conditions.
Anyone who deals with investments should not only concentrate on current interest rates and developments, but also keep an eye on the past. The reason: Very few customers want to invest their savings in several banks. So if you don't want to change providers every few months, you should look for a permanently good provider for your fixed-term deposit account.
On behalf of ntv, FMH-Finanzberatung researched which banks offered the best interest rates on average in 2022. To do this, FMH evaluated the interest rates on fixed deposits from 140 banks over a period of 52 weeks and used this to form an average. In addition, the Frankfurt experts formed different categories in order to be able to name the best providers in each case for customers with different priorities.
Banks operating nationwide with extended German deposit insurance, banks operating nationwide with statutory deposit insurance and foreign banks that can only be reached through intermediaries and therefore only offer statutory deposit insurance were examined.
Regional banks were not taken into account in the comparison: FMH could not find any competitive offers in this segment. Because extremely long-term fixed-term deposits are less interesting in times of rising interest rates, the experts also only considered investment periods of between one and four years.
The best deals in 2022 came from banks offered through intermediaries. Security-conscious savers do not have to settle for financial institutions with a less good country ranking - such as Italy, Portugal or Romania. Banks from Estonia, Lithuania or Slovakia also offer attractive conditions. In addition, the two intermediaries, Weltsparen and Zinspilot, make sure that the maximum investment amount of 100,000 euros, for which the statutory deposit insurance exists, is not exceeded.
The nationwide banks with statutory deposit insurance are now offering respectable interest rates again, but on average they remain around 0.2 percent behind the interest rates of those institutes that can also be reached in direct business throughout Europe.
Although very few investors invest more than 100,000 euros, German savers love the German deposit insurance, which goes well beyond 100,000 euros. However, they have to accept interest rate deductions of 0.6 and 0.8 percent respectively.
In euros and cents, with a fixed deposit for two years and an investment of 50,000 euros, this means an interest rate difference of 640 euros - if you compare the best provider with German deposit insurance (Ford Bank GmbH) and the best broker offer (PayRay from Lithuania). With a fixed deposit over four years, the difference here is even 965 euros.
What is striking about the current comparison is that - regardless of the term - the same banks occupy the top positions in almost every group. In the case of the German deposit insurance group, these are Ford Bank GmbH, CreditPlus Bank, pbb direct and IKB Deutsche Industriebank.
In the legal group you can find Bigbank, Credit Agricole, Younited Credit and Renault Bank direct. PayRay, Banca Progetto and Inbank score points among intermediary banks.
By the way: With the ntv comparison calculators you will find the currently best interest rates for fixed deposits every day.
