Bank Deals Blog

The first Fed meeting of 2021 is scheduled to take place next week. No policy changes are expected. There has been talk by a couple of Fed officials that the Fed could start tapering its bond purchases late this year if the economy does have a strong recovery.

This Fed taper talk along with the increased odds that the new Congress will pass more fiscal stimulus has contributed to rising long-dated Treasury yields. In 2013 when Fed Chair Ben Bernanke hinted that the Fed was thinking about tapering, the markets were...

Michigan-based Union Bank has been offering its 1-2-3 Rewards Checking for about three years and the original tiered APYs are still in effect. The 1-2-3 Rewards Checking is structured differently than the vast majority of reward checking accounts, as it offers four different APYs on portions of qualifying balances. The 3.05% APY ($15k-$25k), 1.51% APY ($1k-$15k) and 0.05%...

Now through February 12, 2021, Marcus by Goldman Sachs (Marcus) is offering a $100 bonus when depositing $10k or more of new money in a new or existing Online Savings Account. The new funds must be deposited within 10 days of enrollment. Those new funds, plus the account balance at the time of enrollment, must be maintained for 90 days. Enrollment must be done by...

Alabama-based First National Bank (FNB) recently added the Kasasa brand to its product line. The Kasasa Cash currently earns 3.00% APY on qualifying balances up to $25k. Qualifying balances over $25k earn 0.25% APY, with non-qualifying balances earning 0.05% APY.

The Kasasa Cash monthly qualification requirements include,

• At least 12 debit card purchases
• At least one ACH credit or ACH payment transaction
• ...

UnitedOne Credit Union (UnitedOne) has been offering Kasasa brand products for about a year. The Kasasa Cash’s initial 3.00% APY on qualifying balances up to $20k is still in effect. Qualifying balances over $20k earn 0.25% APY, with non-qualify balances earning 0.05% APY.

The monthly qualification requirements include,

• At least 12 signature-based debit card purchases
• At least one direct deposit,...

About 18 months ago, Sterling National Bank introduced its new online division, BrioDirect. The original product line consisted of the High Yield Savings account and two short-term CDs. Initially offering a competitive rate (2.46% APY), the High-Yield Savings began a long series of rate drops within two months of its debut. As of three weeks ago, the High-Yield Savings was earning 0.40% APY. At some point after Christmas,...

For the last three months, online savings account rates haven’t fallen as fast as they had in August and September. You can see this trend in our online savings account index which is the average rate of ten well-established online savings accounts.

The slowing of online savings account rate declines can also be seen at the major online banks. Fewer of the major online savings accounts have had rate cuts. I only list three with rate cuts in the last three weeks, and these three are not the most prominent online...

Any improvement in deposit rates for 2021 will likely require a strong economic recovery. The December unemployment report that was released Friday didn’t seem to offer much good news on the economy. The Labor Department reported a job loss of 140k which was below the 50k gain that economists were expecting. It was the first month with job losses since last April.

Even though the jobs report appeared gloomy, it didn’t upset the market as described in this CNBC article:

In fact, there are reasons to be optimistic as Economist Tim Duy...

Virginia-based Select Bank is offering very competitive Kasasa brand products. The Kasasa Cash currently earns 2.01% APY on qualifying balances up to $50k. Qualifying balances over $50k earn 0.25% APY, with non-qualifying balances earning 0.05% APY.

The Kasasa Cash monthly qualification requirements are typical and do not include a direct deposit or ACH transaction.

• At least 12 debit card purchases
• Be enrolled...