Brokerages slash yields on cash, but some still offer upward of 4%

The Federal Reserve has only just started cutting interest rates, but brokerage firms are already whittling down what they’re willing to pay for idle cash. The Fed last week dialed back interest rates by a half percentage point, bringing the target fed funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%. It didn’t take long for banks to get with the program: Ally Financial , Discover Financial and Marcus by Goldman Sachs are among the institutions that trimmed annual percentage yields (APY) on savings accounts since the Fed lowered rates, according to an analysis by Wells Fargo. “We expect that more rate reductions could be forthcoming since the avg. savings rate is down just 6 [basis points] vs. the Fed’s 50bp cut,” wrote Wells Fargo analyst Michael Kaye on Friday. A basis point is equal to one one-hundredth of a percent. Brokerages have also jumped in on the action, with several companies dropping the rates they pay on sums held in cash sweep accounts. This is where investors hold money that they haven’t yet deployed into investments. Charles Schwab recently trimmed its cash sweep rate to 20 basis points, where it was previously 45 basis points, according to an analysis by Bank of America. Wells Fargo also dropped rates by 3 basis points to 30 basis points, based on the level of clients’ household assets. Right now, Wells Fargo Advisors offers an APY of 0.02% on accounts with up to $999,999 in assets, and 0.20% on those with more than $20 million. A few outliers still pay solid rates on idle cash Brokerages take different approaches toward cash sweeps, with some firms opting to keep rates low even when the Fed was hiking rates. Though low rates on uninvested cash may spur clients to commit the money to stocks, bonds and money market funds, some firms’ practice of offering very low yields on sweeps has spurred several customers to file suit . It pays to shop around, though. Even as yields are expected to continue falling, a couple of brokerages continue to offer competitive rates, Bank of America found. Interactive Brokers recently trimmed its cash sweep rate by 50 basis points, but customers with a net asset value exceeding $100,000 can still earn an annual rate of 4.33% on cash balances over $10,000. Robinhood also dialed back the rate it pays on cash sweeps by 50 basis points for Robinhood Gold members: The APY paid on uninvested sums is now 4.5%. Finally, Vanguard’s Cash Plus bank sweep program offers an APY of 4.15%. Higher yields aren’t too good to be true, but they may be too good to last. “We’ve been banging the drum a while about cash sweeps — first on the front end as rates started going up,” said Ryan Salah, a certified financial planner at Capital Financial Partners in Towson, Maryland. “We’ve been reminding clients to pay attention to those savings account and money market fund rates we’ve all been so pleased to get,” he added. “It will be interesting to see the reaction over the next several months.”