Icelandic bank Kaupthing Edge has announced it will leave its savings rate untouched at 6.5% following the Bank of England base rate cut. This is the second time it has decided to keep its top rate on hold despite base rate reductions. Icesave, the UK savings arm of Landsbanki bank, followed in the wake of its Icelandic peer and also announced that it would retain the 6.05% rate on its easy access account. Kaupthing stormed onto the UK savings market this year, but has since endured a tirade of unfavorable press after Morgan Stanley revealed its borrowing costs have increased 400% over the past year and analysts concluded it is 7.5 times more likely to default than any other European bank. However, UK savers can take solace in the fact that their savings are covered up to £35,000, as well as the impressive guarantee on the Kaupthing account of 0.3% above base rate until 2012.
Posts Tagged ‘Kaupthing Edge’
Kaupthing remains top of savings best-buy
Friday, April 11th, 2008Just how safe are overseas banks?
Thursday, February 21st, 2008New banks from foreign shores are tempting savers with top rates of interest on internet accounts. Kaupthing Edge is owned by Icelandic Bank Kaupthing and its UK subsidiary Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. ICICI Bank UK, a subsidiary of the huge Indian ICICI Bank, operates in 18 countries and has 24m customers worldwide. FBN (UK) Ltd, whose account, under the brand name FirstSave, is also in the best buy tables, is a subsidiary of First Bank of Nigeria. With all three banks the money in your savings account always stays in the UK and is invested mainly in cash and short-term bonds - or near cash - to finance the bank’s UK business. Your money will not end up in Nigeria, India or Iceland. Given the distinctly dodgy reputation of some Nigerian operations - it is the home of internet fraud and corruption is rife - this should provide reassurance to anyone considering FBN’s account. Savings in any of these three banks are covered by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). If any of these banks go bust then you can claim up to £35,000 per person per bank as they are all fully authorised by the FSA.
Egg slashes savings rate by 0.5%
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008Following last week’s rate cut by the Bank of England, Egg has slashed the rate on its internet savings account by 0.5% - double the cut in the base rate. Until the end of last year Egg’s Internet Account came with a promise that its before-tax rate would at least match base rate – 5.25% from last week. But now that the guarantee has run out, the bank has taken a heavy hand to the account. Its loyal savers now earn 4% after savings tax (5% before tax) down from 4.4% (5.5%). Customers looking for a higher rate may want to switch to newcomer Kaupthing Edge which has said it will not be reducing the 6.50% it pays to online savers, despite the change to the base rate.
Savers should beware as rates fall
Monday, February 11th, 2008Interest rates are coming down on many savings accounts following the Bank of England cut on Thursday. But although the base rate fell by just a quarter of a percentage point, the rates on some savings accounts have come down by far more. Newcomer Kaupthing Edge, however, has thrown down the gauntlet by declaring that it will not cut the 6.5% rate on its table-topping easy-access account. ICICI, which pays 6.41% to HiSave customers, Bradford & Bingley (6.40%) and Icesave (6.40%) have yet to reveal whether they have the stomach for a fight. Watch this space!
Newcomer Kaupthing offers 6.5% to online savers
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008Icelandic-owned Kaupthing Edge, an online savings provider, has become the latest foreign bank to launch an account aimed at British savers. The instant-access savings account which pays 6.5% gross rivals that of ICICI Bank’s HiSave account at 6.41% (which has stayed at the top for a long while). Savers must first open the instant-access account with a minimum of £1,000 before they can take advantage of Kaupthing’s fixed rates while ICICI HiSave only requires £1. It also offers a six-month fixed-rate bond at 6.8% gross and a 12-month fixed-rate bond at 6.86% gross. Kaupthing is regulated by the Financial Services Authority and as such savers’ cash up to £35,000 is protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the bank were to run into difficulties. Kaupthing also guarantees that the rate on its instant-access account, which is variable, will not be less than 0.3 of a percentage point above the base rate until February 2012.
