Bank of Ireland said it is is reducing the interest rate on its 12 and 18-month fixed-term deposits by 0.25%.
The changes will take effect from Tuesday February 18.
The bank announced similar cuts on its 12 and 18-month fixed-term deposits savings products in January.
But it said today there will be no changes to its SuperSaver regular savings account or any of its other savings products including its Advantage 6-month Fixed Term deposit account, its Notice Deposit account, its Instant Access Demand account, its MortgageSaver (regular savings) account and its GoalSaver (regular savings) account.
Bank of Ireland said that customers who are already in the process of opening a 12 or 18-month term deposit account can still avail of the existing rates if they open their account by the close of business on February 17.
Daragh Cassidy, head of communications at bonkers.ie, said Bank of Ireland’s latest deposit rate cuts follows a series of cuts from most of the main providers since the start of the year.
He noted that German online-only bank N26 has cut rates twice this year already, while Dutch bank Bunq has cut its top savings rate from 3.36% to 2.67% and AIB reduced the rate on two of its fixed-term deposit accounts by 0.25 percentage points.
With the European Central Bank almost guaranteed to cut rates another two or three times this year, he said that more cuts from all the main savings providers are almost a certainty over the coming months.
Mr Cassidy predicted that by the end of the year, the best savings rate in the entire market may be only around 1.50% – around half what it is now.
He also said that Irish households still have a huge amount of money on deposit where it is earning little to no interest, with Irish savers hesitant to chase after the higher rates of interest that have been on offer for the past 18 months or so.
“Those with savings really need to do something with them before rates fall further, ss there is not much time left,” he added.
