Floating Interest Rate Clauses and the Attractiveness of Term Deposits with a Floating Rate as Saving Instruments Economic, Legal and Ethical Aspects

The main aim of the paper is to analyse the way of formulating floating-rate clauses as one of the determinants of attractiveness of floating-rate term deposits and the assessment of the compliance of these clauses with law and ethics.In the initial part of of the paper floating-rate term deposits as an element of commercial bank offer were presented. Then basic factors influencing their attractiveness as a form of saving money were identified. In the course of analysis it was settled that one of the most important factors is the possibility of an economically unfounded (and unfavorable to the depositor) change of the nominal interest paid on these deposits. Depositors are not protected against these changes by floating-rate clauses included (generally) in regulations defining rules of functioning of term deposit accounts. In order to verify this hypothesis, a detailed analysis of these clauses was carried out, together with an attempt to assess their compliance with law and ethics