Decline In National Unemployment Rate Offers Ray Of Hope For Savers

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- RateWatch, a premier banking data and analytics service owned by TheStreet, Inc. TST reported today that national average bank deposit rates remained unchanged at record-low levels, except for the average rate for a four-year CD, which increased to 0.63% from 0.62% last week.  However, some regions of the nation saw a slightly greater upward movement in rates.

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"Last week's meeting of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee included no change in monetary stimulus policy for the Federal Reserve," said Philip van Doorn, TheStreet's senior bank analyst. "One ray of hope for savers was the decline in the national unemployment rate for July to 7.4% from 7.6% in June. The FOMC has repeatedly said that its 'highly accommodative' policy of keeping the federal funds rate in a range of zero to 0.25% will likely remain in place until the unemployment rate drops below 6.5%."

In the New Haven, Boston, Dallas and Philadelphia markets, New Haven CD rates showed the most change despite having rates considerably lower than the national averages.  The average rates for nearly all CD terms in the New Haven area increased, with the 5 year CD increasing the most at over one basis point.

NATIONAL AVERAGE RESULTS - $10K

BOSTON REGION AVERAGE RESULTS - $10K

NEW HAVEN REGION AVERAGE RESULTS - $10K

DALLAS REGION AVERAGE RESULTS - $10K

PHILADELPHIA REGION AVERAGE RESULTS - $10K

TOP RATE ISSUERS - $10K
This is a list of issuers with top interest rates. The issuer's Financial Strength Rating is an independent, unbiased evaluation of quarterly regulatory statements. Institutions are assigned a letter grade of A-E with "A" representing the highest rating based on a review of many aspects of financial safety including capitalization, asset quality, profitability and liquidity. For more information, visit www.weissratings.com/help/what-our-ratings-mean.aspx.  Information is believed to be accurate, but not guaranteed.

Financial Strength Rating: A=Excellent, B=Good, C=Fair, D=Weak, E=Very Weak
                                                Plus sign "+" = top of range, Minus sign "-" = bottom of range

Data is surveyed weekly with averages calculated each Monday afternoon from RateWatch's unbiased national interest rate survey of over 96,000 financial institution locations across the United States.

About RateWatch
For over 20 years, RateWatch has been the premier provider of competitive interest rate and product information to financial institutions across the United States.  Consistently providing top quality, highly relevant data RateWatch maintains the largest database in the industry with deposit, loan, and fee information monitoring over 96,000 locations. Rate surveys, product comparisons, financial strength reporting, local/regional/national averages, fee reporting, specialty reports and more are available.  To learn more about RateWatch, visit www.rate-watch.com.  RateWatch is a division of TheStreet, Inc.

About TheStreet
TheStreet, Inc. (www.t.st) is the leading independent digital financial media company providing business and financial news, investing ideas and analysis to personal and institutional investors worldwide.  The Company's portfolio of business and personal finance brands includes: TheStreet, RealMoney, RealMoney Pro, Stockpickr, Action Alerts PLUS, Options Profits, MainStreet and RateWatch.  To learn more, visit www.thestreet.com.  The Deal, the Company's institutional business, provides intraday coverage of mergers and acquisitions and all other changes in corporate control.  To learn more, visit www.thedeal.com.

Contact:

Emily Schneider
TheStreet, Inc.
212-321-5521
emily.schneider@thestreet.com

Joe Deaux
TheStreet, Inc.
212-321-5086
joseph.deaux@thestreet.com

SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.