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Guide to Essential Money Tools
Banking Tools
Money tool - US dollar and euro accounts
Investec Bank (Channel Islands)
Investec Bank (Channel Islands) established its 90 day notice Investec Horizon Account two years ago to meet demand from many expatriates who were being paid in US dollars or euros but receiving poor returns from their euro or US dollar offshore accounts. Strong competition in the sterling offshore savings account market place meant that many bank accounts paid interest at the Bank of England base rate or above. However, at the time, few offshore bank accounts were offering returns that were anywhere near the US Federal Reserve (Fed) or European Central Bank (ECB) rates.
Investec saw a gap in the market. It now provides US dollar and euro savers with more choice and gives a commitment that the interest rate on its Horizon account will not fall below the Fed or ECB rate on account balances of at least $50,000, Ä50,000 or £25,000. The interest is paid quarterly and can be paid to a nominated account free of charge.
Clients can make withdrawals in fourteen currencies by electronic funds transfer and cheques can be issued in US dollars, euros or sterling. Investec is able to track the US dollar and euro three month money market rates as a result of its pro-active management of the dollar and euro yield curves. Consequently, Investec has consistently outperformed the Fed and ECB rates since launch.
Investec delivers interest rate changes with immediate effect to the Investec Horizon Account holders, in keeping with Investec’s commitment to pass on all beneficial rate moves to its clients as quickly as possible. In 2006, Investec launched an Offshore Savings Index to monitor the performance of the offshore US dollar and euro accounts against the Fed and ECB rates. With the approach of the second year anniversary of the launch of the Investec Horizon Account we are seeing the competition in the offshore market for US dollar and euro accounts tighten.
However, Investec is still in the vanguard of interest rate
offerings and there are still many offshore accounts offering derisory returns.