Banesco USA Introduces 36-Month CD, 2.70% APY

As I was reading up on Banesco USA last month, I saw the following on the CD promotion page:

New products coming soon!

I didn’t put too much stock into that announcement, because “coming soon” doesn’t always happen. Banesco USA proved me wrong yesterday, by adding a new 36-month CD (2.70% APY). Mea culpa. The announcement is still on the CD page; I think I’ll keep checking it.

Opening a CD online requires a $1.5k minimum deposit, but opening a CD in-branch only requires a $1k minimum deposit. While Banesco USA lists two deposit tiers (under $250k and over $250k) for all of its CDs, the APYs are currently the same for both tiers.

As stated in the Truth-in-Savings Act disclosure, the Early Withdrawal Penalty (EWP) reads as follows:

For an account with an original term of three (3) years, the penalty will
be one hundred eighty (180) days of interest on the amount withdrawn.

While the EWP is fairly consumer friendly, the following two limitations are definitely not.

Crediting frequency – Interest will be paid at maturity, added back to the Certificate of Deposit (CD).

Effect of Closing an Account – If you close your account before interest is credited, you will not receive the accrued interest.

Availability

Headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, Banesco USA offers its product line to all U.S. citizens and residents alien, 18 years or older, with a valid Social Security number. Each account signer is required to have a unique email address.

Opening a CD with Banesco USA can be done online or any of four Florida branches, located in Coral Gables, Doral, Fort Lauderdale, and Weston. Banesco USA also has a branch in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

According to the first page of the online application,

Checking or Savings account information to fund your new CD.
Funds must be available at the time of account application.

Bank Overview

Banesco USA has an overall health grade of "A" at DepositAccounts.com, with a Texas Ratio of 2.44% (excellent) based on December 30, 2017 data. In the past year, Banesco USA has increased its total non-brokered deposits by $83.06 million, an excellent annual growth rate of 10.86%. Please refer to our financial overview of Banesco USA (FDIC Certificate # 57815) for more details.

Banesco USA is currently Florida’s 22^nd largest bank with assets in excess of $1 billion. There has been some confusion in the past between Banesco USA and Banesco, which is a Venezuelan bank. Banesco USA was founded and granted an FDIC Certificate in 2006 and originally operated as BBU Bank. According to a PR Newswire article, the Bank was re-branded as Banesco USA in 2011,

after BBU Bank acquired and merged San Juan, Puerto Rico-based Banesco International Bank Corp. into its mainland U.S. domestic banking operations. The merger done last September gave BBU Bank an additional $16 million capital infusion and a new branch in the US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

According to Wikipedia,

Banesco is one of the first Venezuelan banks holding only Venezuelan capital. It was founded in 1977 as the Banco Agroindustrial Venezolano (Venezuelan Agroindustrial Bank), until it changed its name to Banco Financiero (Financial Bank) in 1987. In 1992, after changing their name to Bancentro, the bank was acquired by the Banesco Financial Organization, the banking division came to dominate the company and was combined with the other divisions to form a banco universal (universal bank).

Bottom line, Banesco USA and Banesco (Velezuelan) are not the same.

How the CD Compares

When compared to the 197 similar length-of-term CDs tracked by DepositAccounts.com that require a similar minimum deposit and are available nationwide, Banesco USA’s 36-month CD APY currently ranks first.

The above rates are accurate as of 4/12/2018.

To search for the best CD rates, both nationwide and state specific, please refer to our CD Rates Table page.