, Columnist
Bank CDs Are an Insult to America’s Savers
Big financial institutions don’t feel the need to offer competitive rates on certificates of deposit, which are universally below the world’s safest asset: Treasury bills.
Not exactly cutting edge.
Photographer: Archive Photos/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Certificates of deposit are one of the oldest, safest bank products around, but investing in shorter-term CDs right now just isn’t worth it. Yet people are still flocking to them.
Data from the Federal Reserve shows that savers have been putting a lot more money into “small-denomination time deposits,” or CDs with balances of less than $100,000. As of the end of last year, those deposits totaled $357 billion — more than four times the amount a year earlier.