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Investing.com -- U.K. bank deposit volumes remained flat month-over-month in July, with sight deposits decreasing 0.1% while time deposits increased 0.1%, according to Bank of England data analyzed by UBS.
The slight decrease in sight deposits was observed in both household sight deposits (-0.1%) and corporate sight deposits (-0.2%). Meanwhile, the increase in time deposits was driven by cash ISAs (+0.6%) and corporate time deposits (+0.7%), while non-ISA household time deposits declined by 1.0%.
As a percentage of total deposits, time deposits including cash ISAs represented 33.7% in July, up approximately 5 basis points from June.
The share of cash ISAs increased by about 10 basis points, and corporate time deposits rose by roughly 5 basis points, while household non-ISA time deposits decreased by approximately 10 basis points.
The overall deposit rate in the U.K. fell 3 basis points to 2.14% in July from 2.17% in June. With no policy rate change during the month, the deposit beta in the U.K. decreased to 48.9% from 49.4%.
Since the Bank of England began cutting rates, banks have passed through about 30% of the rate reductions to depositors - with overall deposit rates down 30 basis points against the 100 basis points decline in the policy rate.
UBS maintains an overweight position on U.K. domestic banks, which trade at 7.6 times forward 2026 earnings per share, representing a 14% price-to-earnings discount to the European banking sector despite having the strongest forecast net interest income growth in the group.
The investment bank expects the European bank sector to re-rate to approximately 10 times forward earnings per share, a roughly 15% increase from current levels.
UBS acknowledged recent media reports about a potential increased UK bank tax following an Institute for Public Policy Research recommendation for a levy on Bank of England reserve balances. The proposed additional bank levies would be equivalent to 29 basis points of U.K. deposits.
While not ruling out additional bank taxes, UBS suggested that moderate, uniformly applied bank taxes would likely be passed on to customers over time by banks with pricing power.
UBS has Buy ratings on Barclays PLC (LON:BARC), NatWest Group PLC (LON:NWG) and Paragon Banking Group PLC (LON:PAGPA), with Neutral ratings on Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY) and Close Brothers Group plc (F:CBRO).