Online Banks Offer Highest Savings Rates

Excerpt from our One Page Annotated Wall Street Journal Summary (please note that Seeking Alpha is not affiliated with The Wall St. Journal):

E-Loan to Announce Savings Account Paying 5.5%

Summary: E-Loan, owned by Popular Inc. (BPOP), will today announce an online savings account paying 5.5%. That compares to savings rates of 5.25% for Amboy Direct, 5.26% for AmTrust Direct, and 5.25% for Countrywide Bank -- owned by Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC). EverBank Financial will offer a 3-month promotional rate of 6.01% starting next week, and E*Trade Financial (ET) is offering a $50 bonus to select customers. Traditional banks Washington Mutual (WM) and Citigroup (C) also offer high rates for online savings accounts but require linkage to checking accounts. Research firm Celent LLC predicts that 19% of total core deposits will be in online savings accounts by 2010, versus 2% this year.
Related links: Full WSJ article • E-Loan's website • Online Brokerages Taking Share from Banks, Despite Price Cuts • Internet Competition Hits the Regional Banks • Conference call transcripts: E*Trade's July 19th Earnings Call • E-LOAN Discusses Marketing and Home Equity Loans (E-Loan 2Q05 conf call quotes, before E-Loan's acquisition by Popular).

You can receive Seeking Alpha's Annotated Wall Street Journal Summary by email every morning by signing up here (free, no spam).