Banks to pass on deposit guarantee
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ANZ and the Commonwealth Bank have announced they will pass on the costs related to the federal government deposit guarantee.
NAB & Westpac have yet to announce their plans which comes into effect from midnight 27 November 2008.
The Government has three scales for the deposit insurance, 70 basis points for AA-rated lenders, 100 basis points for those rated A and 150 basis points for BBB-rated and unrated organisations.
Institutions such as the Bank of Queensland will absorb as much of the cost as possible whereas other’s like the Macquarie Bank have advised they will absord the total cost of the guarantee.
Both the ANZ and Commonwealth Bank as AA rated lenders will pass on the full 70 basis point charge to customers, the ANZ will introduce this as an opi-in or opt-out for customers who have more than $1 million in a cash account.
For customers with less than $1 million the federal government will cover the cost of the guarantee.
Best Australian Deposit Rates
Here at Australian Bank Watch we have spent some time looking for some of the best Australian deposit rates available whether they be at call savings accounts, cash managements account or online savings accounts.
It would be of little surprise that none of the major Australian banks failed to feature in the top handful but expect the major banks to show an increased effort to attract savers.
The major banks have so far concentrated on term deposits but the Commonwealth Bank have recently been advertising their Cash Management account where they offer 5.75%, remember this is above the RBA rate of 5.25%.
However, a number of other well known institutions are offering better deals.
AMP is the best with an eASYCash Management account that is offering 7.35%, the Bank of Queensland also offer an excellent rate with their WebSavings account that has an introductory rate of 7.20%.
The ANZ backed One Direct offer a high interest saver account that offers a solid 7% return while the superannuation backed Members Equity have a Online Savings account offering 6.50%.
They are followed by other major institutions such as St George’s Direct Saver with 6.50%, Adelaide Banks Cash Management Trust with 6.35%, Bankwest with a Telenet Saver account offering 6.25% on a promotional rate and Macquarie Bank with their Cash Trust offering 6.25%.
At a time when the world sharemarkets are in major upheaval perhaps now could be a good time to re-allocate what available cash you have into one of these high interest accounts.