Interest is back. With quirion, you can participate in it twice over: through the Settlement Account PLUS and through the global ETF portfolio.
Low interest, rock-bottom interest, negative interest: on the subject of interest rates, negative records dominated the headlines for many years. There was even talk of a "dispossession of savers." But last year, interest rates returned to the euro area, and in big strides at that: within just a few months they rose to a level they had not reached in over a decade.
While the costs of loans or overdrafts quickly followed the rise in interest rates, the interest-rate turnaround is only gradually arriving for savings deposits. At the start of the year, for example, the average effective interest rate for deposits with a notice period of up to 3 months at German banks stood at just 0.2 percent. That's according to statistics from the Deutsche Bundesbank.
2.5 percent interest at quirion
At quirion, by contrast, there has been an attractive interest offer since the beginning of March: currently, there is 2.5 percent annual interest on balances of unlimited amount in the Settlement Account PLUS. The money remains available daily. Admittedly, the settlement account is tied to a wealth-management mandate at quirion. But that is available from an investment amount of just 25 euros, either as a one-off or as a savings plan.
It's worth understanding the condition not as an obstacle but as an additional opportunity, and considering how much freely available money you want to earn interest on and how much you want to use for building wealth systematically. For building wealth, the ETF portfolios, which give investors a stake in the equity markets, are in any case better suited. Because historically, equities have achieved far higher average returns over the long term.
The higher return opportunities on the equity markets are not to be had without price fluctuations, however. To reduce these, quirion pursues an investment strategy on a scientific basis. The focus is on particularly broad diversification. The global ETF portfolio gives you a stake in more than 8,000 equities.
In addition, depending on your appetite for risk and your time horizon, bonds are added, again via ETFs. The bonds are intended to further stabilize the portfolio. Because bond prices fluctuate far less strongly over the long term than equities.
A risk buffer with a return bonus
Even if bonds at quirion serve above all as a risk buffer, there are return opportunities with bonds too. The so-called yield to maturity of the bonds in the global portfolio averaged around four percent at the end of February. The yield to maturity is the return in the event that bonds are held until maturity.
Because quirion invests via bond ETFs, the yield to maturity changes continuously. That's because as bonds mature, they are replaced by new ones within the ETFs. In a rising interest-rate environment, the portfolio benefits from this reinvestment effect. New bonds that yield higher interest replace older bonds with lower interest. As a result, the bond portfolio gradually adjusts to the new interest-rate environment. So right now, investors at quirion can share in the interest bonus twice over, through the settlement account as well as through investing in the global ETF portfolio.
