Bank deposits grow by £9bn

Tuesday 17th February 2009, 3:00PM GMT.

JERSEY’S bank deposits grew by £9 billion in the three months to December, despite the global downturn.

But the good news is due to the low value of sterling against other currencies such as the euro and US dollar, rather than an increase in business, say analysts.

The latest statistics show that bank deposits in the Island reached £206 billion at the end of December, up from £196.9 billion at the end of September, of which 68% is in non-sterling currency.

The net asset value of funds under administration also went up during the quarter, from £239.9 billion to £241.1 billion.

Geoff Cook, the chief executive of Jersey Finance, said that the higher value of foreign currencies ‘substantially masked’ the downturn during the last three months of 2008.

• Picture: Geoff Cook

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1
Paul

February 17, 2009 at 4:20 pm

A simple bit of mathematics converting the value of the deposits held at the end of December into sterling at the September exchange rate actually show a withdrawal of approx £20Billion equivalent over the 3 month period.

Another way to look at it is at the end of September deposits were approx US$350Billion; at the end of December deposits were approx US$310Billion hence a LOSS of approx US$40Billion

Both methods show a net reduction of deposits of approx 10%!

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2
pcc

February 17, 2009 at 5:31 pm

isnt the headline of this article misleading given the content?

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3
Si

February 18, 2009 at 6:45 am

This is something to be expected. Investments are being redeemed and people are staying in cash. Shoudn’t have even made a headline!

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4
Pip Clement

February 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm

What a silly headline.
As Paul points out there was a net outflow of funds from the island during this time.
However this is concealed by the changed currency position.
When sterling strengthens against the dollar there will be a substantial fall in the value of the funds held in the island.

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5
Local Resident

February 18, 2009 at 6:48 pm

Do they think we are fools and can be blinded by science?

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