USA Banks News

If you live in either the Seattle or Minneapolis areas, odds are you’re eligible to take advantage of top CD rates available from Wings Financial Federal Credit Union.

This rate leader has three good deals right now, all with a $500 minimum deposit:

• 24-month CDs pay 1.31% APY.
• 36-month CDs pay 1.71% APY.
• 60-month CDs pay 2.22% APY.

All of those certificates of deposit pay better than the top nationally available deals on our CD Rates Leaderboard.

The best of the bunch is the 5-year CD, which pays more than two-fifths of a percentage point better than the top bank deal available to all U.S. savers.

While these rates aren’t national, membership in Wings Financial Credit Union — which caters to airline employees — is open to more people than a typical credit union.

With a $30 minimum deposit, you can join if:

• You live or work in metropolitan Seattle-Tacoma.
• You live or work in the 13-county Minneapolis-St. Paul ar

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New Zealanders are saving more than they were less than two years ago but are missing out on deals by not shopping around, according to a online banking service.

The findings come ahead of the Budget announcement this month.

Seventy-three per cent of Kiwis have money put aside in a savings account or term deposit, up from 47 per cent in August 2010, RaboDirect’s latest poll has found.

A random sample of 1000 New Zealanders took part in the survey last month.

But while cash savings are on the increase, 69 per cent either can’t be bothered shopping around between banks or are indifferent to hunting for the best savings rates, the survey found.

The research showed a ‘profound shift’ in Kiwis’ attitudes to saving, with more people seeing the value of putting money away, said RaboDirect general manager Mel Templeton.

The poll showed investment in shares and the property market are also on the rise.

In 2010, four per cent of Kiwis were investing in both shares and investment properties, which was now up to 15 and 13 per cent this year.

However, there were still too many people missing out on deals by not shopping around, she said.

“And with Reserve Bank figures showing Kiwi households have more than $80 billion in retail cash savings, there’s a lot of money that could potentially be working harder.”

Templeton said savers should make the most of a competitive market, and she advised looking for consistently high interest rates that deliver value and low fees.

“It’s a great environment for savers who should be looking to maximise their savings by getting the best deals possible.”

This week we consider a medium term Jaguar Land Rover 8.25% coupon note denominated in pound sterling that will yield about 7% through maturity.  Although the lower rating of this company, currently owned by Tata Motors,  necessitated a higher 8.25% coupon yield when it was first issued almost one year ago, the strong and steadily improving performance while under the new management of Tata Motors has brought this lesser known “junk rated” issue to the forefront of our attention and careful scrutiny.  Not always believing that the well known and more popular rating agency always get it right, here at Durig Capital we have developed our own strict criteria for evaluating unrated and/or high yield junk bonds.  As a

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Ladies and gentlemen,

I am very pleased to welcome you to Frankfurt today on the occasion of the signing of the T2S Framework Agreement by a first group of central securities depositories, or CSDs.

T2S is an important project for the Eurosystem and for Europe. It is a key component of the European market infrastructure, and the Governing Council of the ECB remains committed to delivering it.

I fully share this commitment, and I am glad to be here today representing the Eurosystem, together with fellow Governor Visco, and other colleagues from National Central Banks. Allow me to thank them for taking the time to be here with us.

I joined the Governing Council as Governor of Banca d’Italia in early 2006, and it was around that time that we started discussing T2S. It was in July 2006 that we decided to consult and involve European CSDs and market participants, to ensure that T2S would fulfil the needs of the market. <

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The Citi ThankYou Rewards Program is offering a 20% discount on select gift card redemptions for a limited time.

That means you can get $50 gift cards for 4,000 points and $100 gift cards for 8,000 points.

For instance, if you visit this Macy’s Gift Card Page at Citi ThankYou, you can view the discounts in the denomination pull-down menu.

Participating retail gift cards include Ann Taylor, Athleta, babyGap, Banana Republic, Foot Locker, Gap, Macy’s, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Sunglass Hut.

These gift card discount redemptions are available through May 17, 2012.

Take advantage of this special ThankYou Rewards program offer to redeem your ThankYou Points for gift cards at discount redemption rates.

Redeem your ThankYou Rewards program points for discounted gift cards for a limited time.