Trade Republic, the Berlin-based investing app, has launched free current accounts in Greece with an offer designed to make traditional banks uncomfortable. New customers earn 3 percent interest on cash balances up to 50,000 euros. Above that, they earn the European Central Bank's deposit rate of 2.5 percent, with no upper limit, according to Finance Magnates. Interest is calculated daily and paid monthly, and customers can withdraw at any time. For a country where many bank savings accounts have paid close to nothing for years, that is a striking headline.
A broker that wants your salary
The account is not just a savings product. Greek customers can have their salary paid into it, pay bills, make instant SEPA transfers and use a card. In the same app they can buy stocks, ETFs and bonds and run savings plans. A 1 percent Saveback programme invests a share of eligible card spending automatically into a savings plan. In other words, Trade Republic wants to be the account a customer uses every day, not just the place they occasionally invest.
That shift matters. Brokers have traditionally sat at the edge of a customer's financial life, receiving transfers from a bank when the customer decided to invest. By offering a full current account, Trade Republic moves to the centre. Once salary arrives in the app, moving money into investments becomes a tap rather than a transfer, and the customer's bank loses visibility of a large share of their finances.
Greece is a deliberate choice. The country has a young, increasingly digital population, a banking sector that has spent years rebuilding after the debt crisis, and deposit rates that have lagged well behind ECB policy. A clear, simple offer paying 3 percent is easy to understand and easy to compare.
The approach also changes what Trade Republic knows about its customers. A broker sees only investment activity. A current account provider sees income, spending, bills and savings patterns. That broader view allows more relevant products, from savings plans timed to payday to investment suggestions based on how much cash a customer typically keeps, and it makes the relationship much harder for a competitor to displace.
How a broker can pay above the ECB rate
Paying 3 percent when the ECB deposit rate is 2.5 percent means Trade Republic is effectively subsidising the first 50,000 euros of each new customer's balance. That is a customer acquisition cost, not a sustainable margin. The company is betting that customers who move their daily banking into the app will also invest, use the card and stay for years, generating revenue from trading, card fees and assets under management that more than covers the interest subsidy.
The cap is what makes the economics work. Most retail customers hold far less than 50,000 euros in cash, so the subsidy is real but bounded. Customers with larger balances earn the ECB rate on the excess, which Trade Republic can pass through from its own placements at little cost. The structure is aggressive at the low end and neutral at the high end.
It also relies on interest rates staying meaningfully positive. If the ECB were to cut sharply, the appeal of the offer would shrink and the subsidy would become relatively more expensive. For now, with inflation pressures still present across Europe, the bet looks reasonable.
- 3 percent interest for new customers on cash up to 50,000 euros
- ECB rate of 2.5 percent on balances above 50,000 euros, no cap
- Interest calculated daily and paid monthly, withdrawals any time
- Free current account with card, salary deposits and instant SEPA transfers
- 1 percent Saveback on eligible card spending invested automatically
Why banks should take this seriously
Retail deposits are the cheapest funding a bank has, and they are cheap precisely because most customers do not move them. Neobanks and brokers paying close to the policy rate break that inertia. Even if only a small share of customers switch, they are often the most engaged and digitally active, the customers banks most want to keep.
Greek banks have strong positions, branch networks and established relationships, and they will respond. The likely reaction is not a broad rate increase, which would be expensive across their entire deposit base, but targeted offers to younger customers and higher rates on new money. That is how banks usually defend deposits: selectively, where the threat is real.
The pattern is familiar from other markets. In Germany, Spain and Portugal, Trade Republic and similar platforms have pushed banks to pay more on savings. Greece is the next battleground, and others will follow. For banks, the risk is not a sudden collapse of deposits but a slow erosion of their most valuable customers.
Greek banks also face a reputational question. After years of very low deposit rates, a foreign app paying 3 percent invites unflattering comparisons in the media and among customers. Even banks that can afford to lose some deposits may raise rates simply to avoid being portrayed as offering poor value, which spreads the cost of Trade Republic's entry across the whole sector.
What it means for brokers in Asia
For brokers and investing apps in Southeast Asia, the Greek launch is a template worth studying. Several regional platforms already offer interest on idle cash, and some hold e-money or digital bank licences. The step from paying interest to becoming a customer's primary account is the one that changes the economics, and it depends heavily on licensing, which varies sharply across the region.
The opportunity is clearest where bank deposit rates lag policy rates and digital adoption is high. The risk is regulatory. Paying bank-like interest without a bank-like licence draws attention quickly. Platforms that partner with licensed banks, or hold the right licences themselves, can copy the model. Others should be cautious, as we discussed in our look at virtual banks targeting underserved customers in Thailand.
Some Asian platforms are already moving in this direction. Brokers in Singapore and Hong Kong pay interest on uninvested cash, and regional e-wallets offer returns through linked money market funds. The difference with Trade Republic's model is the current account itself, which captures salary and daily spending rather than just idle balances. That is the step that turns an investing app into a customer's main financial relationship.
Once salary arrives in the app, moving money into investments becomes a tap rather than a transfer.
The deposit war is spreading across Europe
Trade Republic is not alone. Across Europe, investing apps, neobanks and even some fintech brokers now compete on the interest they pay on idle cash. Rates that track or exceed the central bank deposit rate have become a standard marketing tool, especially in countries where traditional banks were slow to pass higher rates on to savers after 2022.
The effect has been measurable. Banks in several European markets have raised savings rates in response, particularly for new money and younger customers. That narrows the margin banks earn between what they pay depositors and what they earn on loans, which has been a major source of profit since rates rose. Each new entrant that pays close to the policy rate puts further pressure on that margin.
For customers, the competition is good news, but it rewards those willing to move money. Savers who stay with a traditional bank account paying little interest are, in effect, subsidising the higher rates offered to those who switch. Greece's entry into this competition means millions more savers now have a simple, visible benchmark to compare against.
The model's weak points
Customer service and reliability become critical once an app holds a customer's salary. A trading outage is annoying; a failed rent payment is a crisis. Platforms that move into everyday banking take on expectations they did not face as brokers, and regulators hold them to stricter standards on safeguarding, complaints and operational resilience.
What interest does Trade Republic pay in Greece?
New customers earn 3 percent on cash balances up to 50,000 euros, and the ECB rate of 2.5 percent on balances above that, with no upper limit.
What does the Trade Republic current account include?
A free current account with a card, salary deposits, bill payments, instant SEPA transfers and a 1 percent Saveback on eligible card spending invested into a savings plan.
How often is interest paid?
Interest is calculated daily and paid monthly, and customers can withdraw their money at any time.
Why does this matter for banks?
Paying above the ECB rate attracts digitally active customers and their salaries, eroding the cheap deposit funding that banks rely on.
Trade Republic's Greek launch is small in absolute terms and large in what it signals. The boundary between broker and bank is dissolving, and the firms crossing it are using interest rates as the battering ram. Banks will defend their best customers. Brokers elsewhere will copy the playbook where licences allow. The customers, for once, are the clear winners.
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