Bank Deals Blog

The start of April didn’t bring as many CD rate cuts as I expected considering the emergency Fed rate cuts that occurred in the first half of March. Several of the large online banks held steady, and several credit unions didn’t further slash CD rates after slashing rates in March.

As I mentioned in my Fed summary, not all banks are rushing to slash deposit rates. A pattern that’s similar to what we saw after the 2008 financial crisis is occurring in which some banks see a need to maintain deposits....

It’s widely believed that we’re now in a recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide shutdown that it has caused. The main question for future interest rates is how serious will the recession be. The worse the recession, the longer we’ll be in the ultra-low interest rate environment.

Kiplinger Washington Editors just published their opinion on a best-case realistic forecast. Even this best-case forecast is grim. They forecast a GDP decline of 4% for 2020, which is worse than the Great Recession. It also forecast an unemployment rate that...

California-based ECCU (formerly known as Evangelical Christian Credit Union) has recently added the Kasasa brand to its product line. The Free Kasasa Cash Checking currently earns 3.00% APY on qualifying balances up to a generous $35k. Qualifying balances over $35k earn 0.25% APY, with non-qualifying balances earning 0.05% APY.

The monthly qualification cycle requirements include,

• At least 12 debit card purchases.
• Be enrolled in online statements.
• Be enrolled in and...

A long-time DA reader emailed me with some good news about opening a CD at New Jersey-based Cross River Bank.

More details about the application process are in the “Availability” section below.

Cross River currently has one competitive CD in its product line: the 24-month CD, earning 2.10% APY. The minimum opening deposit is $500, with no stated balance cap.

West Virginia state regulators closed The First State Bank this Friday, April 3rd. This is the second bank to fail in 2020, and it’s the first bank to fail in the coronavirus crisis. Even though this bank failed in the coronavirus crisis, it had major financial problems long before the pandemic started. Based on the 2019 Q4 bank call reports from the FDIC (the latest available), this bank had the highest Texas Ratio of any bank in the nation (1,050%). Any bank with a Texas Ratio greater than 100% is...

Utah-based Prime Alliance Bank (Prime Alliance) is the latest financial institution to lower the rates on its savings and money market accounts. The Personal Savings and Personal Money Market accounts were both lowered by 25 bps yesterday, giving each a 1.71% APY on minimum balances of $10k; balances between $1 and $10k earn 1.61% APY.

A year ago, the Personal Savings and Personal...

Western State Bank (Western) has been now offering its High Yield Money Market* (HYMM) on a nationwide basis for more than a year. The 1.85% APY applies to all balances up to $3 million, with no minimum balance requirement.

*I have included a link to the HYMM’s landing page because it has its own URL that cannot be found on Western’s main website.

In a Forum post last week, DA reader, tbc3, noted that,

As I noted in yesterday’s Liquid Summary, Comenity Direct is one of a handful of online banks that have changed the trajectory of their rates with modest increases, partially reversing rate cuts made in early March. In doing so, Comenity Direct seems to have joined other online banks that are stretching out their transition to low rates.

Widespread rate cuts continue on online savings and money market accounts. The last emergency Fed rate cut that lowered the federal funds rate to the zero bound was just over two weeks ago. Most online banks appear to be following a strategy of stretching out the transition to low rates. A few have decided to act quickly with large cuts.

One interesting twist to the rate cuts is that a couple of online banks have changed course. They have partially reversed their early March rate cuts with modest rate hikes. So...

With last week’s passage of the massive coronavirus relief package (the CARES Act) and with the Federal Reserve continuing to use all of its tools, a long recession should hopefully be avoided. However, with the nationwide lockdown scheduled to last at least through April, a recession still appears likely. Goldman Sachs just released a forecast in which unemployment will peak around 15% later this year and GDP falls by 34% in the second quarter. As is described in this CNBC article, that “would be by far the worst period...

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is already resulting in mass unemployment, and those with loans, mortgages and credit card debt will be the ones most in need of help from banks. Savers may not be worried about making loan payments, but there are other potential problems they may face as the pandemic continues. In addition to offering help on the loan and credit side, many banks and credit unions are offering help on the deposit side. This post provides a listing of the banks and credit unions that have announced specific...

Oklahoma-based Gateway First Bank (Gateway First) has begun to offer a series of CDs on a limited nationwide basis (38 states). The 12-, 24-, 36-, 48-, and 60-month CDs all earn the APYs: 2.02% ($25k minimum deposit) and 1.92% ($500 minimum deposit). While there is no stated deposit cap, the FAQs state there is a “$500k maximum limit when funding by ACH online.”