The total savings of Dominicans in financial intermediation entities supervised by the Superintendency of Banks (SB) amounted to RD$2.3 trillion at the end of December 2022, equivalent to 38% of nominal gross domestic product (GDP).
In this way, deposits experienced an increase of RD$161.7 million, for 7.6% year-on-year.
The data is contained in the latest report Savings trends in the Dominican Republic: Perspective from the deposits of the financial system, that covers until December 2022.
According to the publication of the Superintendency of Banks (SB), deposits from the public are the main source of economic resources for carrying out financial intermediation activities, representing 86.8% of the system’s total liabilities.
The report also highlights that households are the main depositors, with 52.4% of total deposits as of December last year.
savings instruments
When disaggregating the deposits of the system by type of instrument, it is observed that 41.7% of the total balance is placed in savings accounts, followed by term deposits and checking accounts, whose participation in the total deposits represented 37.1% and 21.2%. , respectively.
The SB report reveals that multiple banks concentrated 89.6% of the total deposits (RD$2.06 trillion). The rest was distributed among 8.6% of savings and loan associations, 1.4% of savings and credit banks, while credit corporations and public financial intermediation entities had 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.
As of December 31 of last year, deposits in foreign currency represented 28.8% of the total. The US dollar continued to show clear dominance among foreign currencies, whose participation reached 97.8% of deposits, leaving the euro in a distant second place, with 2.2%. It is worth noting the growth of 29% in savings in the European currency.
Regarding the geographical distribution of deposits, the eastern part of the country and the Metropolitan region presented the highest year-on-year increase, with an expansion of 10.7% and 7.9%, respectively. The northern and southern regions of the country registered growth rates of close to 6% each.
From the point of view of deposits by gender, the SB report shows that balances in each type of instrument tend to be higher in accounts whose holders are identified as men, reflecting the persistence of the gender gap. For both men and women, the deposit instrument with the highest balance is savings accounts. In December 2022, the balances in savings accounts and term deposits averaged RD$132,676 for men and RD$99,988 for women, for an average gap of RD$32,688.