Rakuten International Commercial Bank Co (樂天國際商銀) on Friday announced that it would offer a relatively high interest rate of 2 percent for its fixed-term deposit accounts if clients deposit more than NT$20,000 at the Web-only bank, in a bid to enhance its competitive position in the Internet banking market.
The annual interest rate of 2 percent would apply to three categories of monthly fixed-term deposits — NT$20,000, NT$50,000 and NT$100,000 — but the deposit rate would only be calculated once, when the deposits mature after one month, so the annual rate would be equivalent to a monthly rate of 0.167 percent, the bank said in a statement.
After the fixed-term deposits mature, they would automatically become demand deposits and clients could then decide how to deal with them themselves, Rakuten Bank said.
Photo: Lee Ching-hui, Taipei Times
Although the deposit interest rate of 2 percent would not apply to deposits with a maturity term of more than one month, the rate is still four times the interest rate of 0.5 percent that Rakuten Bank provides for demand deposits, the bank said.
Most local banks offer even lower interest rates for demand deposits, such as Bank of Taiwan (台灣銀行) and Mega International Commercial Bank (兆豐銀行), which offer 0.1 percent, and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank (台北富邦銀行) with 0.05 percent, the banks’ data showed.
“It is a safe option for customers who have a low-risk appetite or who do not invest and want to pursue stable returns,” Rakuten Bank said.
The monthly fixed-term deposit program marked Rakuten Bank’s latest effort to attract clients after it provided an annual deposit interest rate of 1 percent for deposits with a one-year maturity.
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