Starting next Monday, a new series of savings certificates will start. It has a lower interest rate than the previous one – the maximum limit is reduced from 3.5% to 2.5% – but a longer repayment period of 15 years.
Following the suspension of the subscription of Series E Savings Certificates, the Government approved the creation of a new Series (F) to replace the previous one. “Subscription is available from next Monday,” the Ministry of Finance says in a statement, with the regulation defining the new series already published in Diário da República.
The base rate corresponds to the average value of the three-month Euribor (without adding 1%, as in the E series base interest formula) and cannot be higher than 2.5% and lower than 0%. This Monday, the certificates of the new series will be launched at the maximum base interest rate.
As for the persistence premiums, they increase, with a 0.25% premium added to the base interest rate between the second and fifth years, which allows you to reach 1.75% in the last two years of the maximum subscription period, i.e. between the 14th year. and 15th year.
The premium awarded between the second and fifth years is half of the 0.5% awarded in Series E, which was also awarded a 1% constancy premium from the beginning of the sixth year to the final year (year 10).
Now the new series between the sixth and ninth years assigns an additional interest rate of “only” 0.5%, in the next two years (10th and 11th) the premium rises to 1%, increasing to 1.5% in years 12 and 13 Finally, for the last two years (14th and 15th), the additional interest is 1.75%.
The Treasury Department said in a statement that “The new Series F’s internal rate of return (IRR), adjusted for permanence premiums, is very similar to the yield currently being received on the same 15-year Treasury bonds.”
The nominal value of each savings certificate remains at one euro, with a minimum subscription amount to open a savings account of 100 euros, and each minimum investment that is added after this opening must be 10 euros. The maximum amount on the account will be 50,000 euros, compared to 250,000 euros in the previous series.
The government justifies this new ceiling on the need to help improve the efficiency and sustainability of Portugal’s public debt”, which could be adjusted “if this proves to be consistent with the goal of prudent public debt management”.
At the same time, “the maximum subscription limit should not be a limitation for the vast majority of depositors,” the Ministry of Finance believes.
For those who already have Series E Savings Certificates, a regulation signed by Fernando Medina sets a maximum of 250,000 Euros in Series F certificates accumulated with Series E Certificates.
Subscription to the new F series savings certificates can still be done through AforroNet, in CTT stores, on the Citizen Spaces AMA network – Administrative Modernization Agency – and on the physical or digital networks of any financial or payment systems registered with the Bank of Portugal and indicated for this purpose IGCP.
Author: business magazine
Source: CM Jornal
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