The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) yesterday announced it would be increasing its 12-month term deposit interest rate by 60 basis points, to a new interest rate of 1.70% p.a. 

NAB followed CBA's lead but bettered the offer, today unveiling a 10-month term deposit with an interest rate of 1.75% p.a.   

CBA's new term deposit rate is available from today for all eligible new and existing CBA personal customers on balances from $5,000 to $2 million, for a limited time only.

“For our deposit customers, we will increase our 12 month term deposit rate by 60 bps to 1.70% p.a," CBA CEO Matt Comyn said. 

"This will be available to all personal customers, but will especially benefit older Australians relying on their savings.

"It will ensure all Australians are now able to earn a return on their savings which is more than 1.45% higher than the official cash rate."

NAB's new term deposit rate will be available from March 24 for personal customers on balances between $5,000 and $2 million. 

Westpac and ANZ are expected to make similar announcements later today. 

While these new term deposit rates are comfortably now among the highest deposit rates offered by the big four, it's important to remember that 1.70% p.a is still fairly small in the grand scheme of things. 

The current inflation rate is 1.80%, meaning any interest earned on this deposit would not earn customers any real return. 

Other term deposit changes 

Term deposit interest rates have been in freefall lately thanks to recent cash rate cuts - yesterday marked the first time in our history that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has cut the cash rate twice in a single month. 

Just in the past couple of weeks, a host of major and larger banks have made sizeable cuts to their term deposit products, including:

  • UniBank and Teachers Mutual Bank decreasing term deposit rates by 25 basis points (20 March)
  • People's Choice Credit Union decreasing term deposit rates by up to 35 basis points (20 March)
  • BOQ decreasing term deposit rates by up to 55 basis points (20 March)
  • CUA increasing term deposit rates by up to 15 basis points (19 March), decreasing by up to 25 (12 March)
  • ING decreasing term deposit rates by up to 30 basis points (18 March) 
  • G&C Mutual Bank decreasing term deposit rates by up to 30 basis points (18 March)
  • Westpac, St. George, BankSA and Bank of Melbourne decreasing term deposit rates by up to 25 basis points (17 March) 
  • AMP increasing term deposit rates by up to 35 basis points (17 March)
  • MyState Bank increasing term deposit rates by up to 50 basis points (17 March)
  • Macquarie Bank decreasing term deposit rates by up to 15 basis points (16 March) 
  • Citi increasing term deposit rates by up to 16 basis points (16 March)
  • ANZ decreasing various term deposit rates by up to25 basis points (13 March)

Some banks have increased various deposit rates, and these have been highlighted in bold. 

The average term deposit interest rate, across all terms, has now plummeted to roughly 1.35% p.a, a truly dismal number considering where rates used to be not even a year ago. 

Xinja savings account rate remains at 2.25% 

Meanwhile, Xinja has reiterated to customers that it is not cutting its market-leading savings account interest rate following the RBA's emergency cash rate cut. 

In an email to customers yesterday, the neobank's CEO Eric Wilson said Xinja's 'Stash' interest rate remains at 2.25% for now.

"That’s not to say we won’t change it in the future (it is a variable rate) however not yet," Mr Wilson wrote in the email. 

"We thought you’d like to know. We do hope you are doing ok through these strange & uncertain times."

Xinja's Stash savings account remains closed to new customers after the neobank announced earlier this month it was pausing new applications to preserve its high interest rate for existing customers.