Avant Money builds up €100m deposit book in first half after entry into savings market

Avant Money built up a deposit book of €100 million in the first half of the year after entering this segment of the banking market.

The unit of Spanish banking group Bankinter became a full-licenced branch of its parent last year and began a soft launch of savings accounts for a limited number of customers in October before officially launching in February.

Avant Money also saw its loan portfolio increase by about €200 million between March and May to €5.2 billion, Bankinter said in a presentation on Thursday on the publication of its latest quarterly results. The annual pace of growth amounted to 24 per cent, leaving it with mortgage book of more than €4 billion and personal loans in excess of €1 billion.

The Irish unit’s pretax profit rose 19 per cent to €25 million on the year, driven by 20 per cent growth in net interest income, to €66 million. Avent is led by chief executive Niall Corbett.

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Irish households had more than €170 billion on deposit with banks – heavily dominated by Bank of Ireland, AIB and, to a lesser extent, PTSB – at the end of February. However, about 85 per cent of this money is in current and on-demand deposit accounts, earning little or nothing in interest.