Bank Deals Blog: Banking Tools and Data

In dynamic, ever-changing financial markets, interest rates constantly fluctuate. CD rates are no exception. Examining historical CD rates can give us insight into the direction rates may be heading in the future.

The current situation is characterized by declining CD yields, in response to the Federal Reserve’s latest policy pause. The average 6-month CD rate in July 2019 sits at 0.92% APY. What a difference the decades can make: 6-month CD rates had climbed to around 18% in the early 1980s.

The fourth Fed meeting of 2019 is scheduled to start Tuesday. The FOMC statement should be released on 2:00pm Wednesday. The expectation is for the Fed to continue to hold steady on rates. However, odds have been rising that the Fed will cut rates. The CME FedWatch Tool still shows that the highest odds are that the federal funds target rate will remain unchanged (80.8% remaining the same vs. 19.2% cutting by 0.25%). However, the odds of a rate cut rise dramatically for the Fed’s July meeting (only 15.7% odds...

The Federal Reserve has hit the pause button on rates, with further increases off the table for now. After hiking the fed funds rate nine times in the three years between December 2015 and December 2018, the Fed has adopted a “wait-and-see approach” in regards to future rate adjustments.

In their own words, FOMC officials are patiently waiting for more economic data — strong or weak — to signal the need for either more rate hikes or a possible rate decrease.

This news is sweet relief for homebuyers shopping...

Several prominent Democrats — including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand; and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — support the idea of providing basic banking services through U.S. post offices.

There are several reasons why advocates are getting behind this concept, but the main idea is concern for Americans who live and work in so-called “banking deserts,” where access to basic financial services is limited by geography. Supporters believe that mandating the United States Postal Service (USPS) to provide basic financial services would help address the problem of banking deserts.

In 2016 we did a study on CD early withdrawal penalties (EWP). By examining EWP data from more than 1,000 institutions, we extracted average EWPs for CD terms from 6 months to 5 years. This year we looked at the data again to see how EWPs have changed. The review included EWP data from 7,562 CDs that were offered by 1,019 banks and credit unions.

As described in our 2016 overview of CD EWPs, the early withdrawal penalty is simply a penalty that is applied when a CD holder elects to...

When looking around for the best deposit rates, you’ve probably noticed that online banks tend to dominate lists with their competitive interest rates. This is especially true when comparing online bank rates with traditional brick-and-mortar banks.

To get a better sense of this competition, DepositAccounts took a deep dive into local bank rates and found that in many states, the rate is no better than the average rate you could find with an online savings account or 1-year CD. The analysis, which was conducted Jan. 1,...

The last Fed meeting of 2018 is scheduled to start Tuesday. The FOMC statement should be released on 2:00pm Wednesday. A rate hike is expected which will move the target federal funds rate range to 2.25% - 2.50%. A Fed rate hike on Wednesday would be the fourth rate hike this year and the ninth rate hike since the Fed began normalizing rates in December 2015. The gradual rate hikes this year may not repeat in 2019. There have been signs the Fed may decide to slow down or pause...

The most recent U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances seems to indicate the younger Americans are, the less they have in savings. We analyzed the federal data to discover the average savings by age.

The analysis reveals the youngest members of the workforce don’t have much to back them in an emergency, as under-35 households in America average less than $5,000 in their savings accounts. As they age and incomes rise, so do the amounts Americans put away in savings and for retirement, but not so much in certificates...

The sixth Fed meeting of 2018 is scheduled to start Tuesday. The FOMC statement should be released on 2:00pm Wednesday. A rate hike is expected which will move the target federal funds rate range to 2.00% - 2.25%. A Fed rate hike on Wednesday would be the third rate hike this year and the eighth rate hike since the Fed began normalizing rates in December 2015. After Wednesday, one more Fed rate hike is likely for 2018. How will this affect deposit rates? To help answer that question, we did...