高回报储蓄：初创企业Betterment带动整个行业——最高回报率达2.69%

Betterment向市场推出了最高回报率的储蓄账户产品。

这家位于纽约市的金融科技初创企业，以机器人顾问或者说自动化投资管理而知名，它开始推出一项新的储蓄产品名为Betterment Everyday，该产品最高可以提供2.69%的年利息回报。它的竞争对手Wealthfront在今年年初也推出了一项储蓄账户产品，截至6月26日，其年度百分比收益率达2.57%，是市场上第二高的收益率。

Betterment的首席执行官和创始人乔恩·斯坦，参加了《财富》的一个谈金融与科技交叉融合的节目《平衡收支》，解释了公司是如何提供如此高的利息回报的。本质上，Betterment是把人们的存款分散放在多家银行，使得公司能够“获得比传统银行储蓄更高的回报”，斯坦说。

斯坦还谈到，“银行只有付给你少些，才能赚钱。”但作为一个独立顾问，“我们可以从市场上获取最佳利率并给予我们的客户。”

Betterment并不打算通过新的储蓄账户产品挣钱，这一产品要求最低10美元的存款，并在后端“至少”有四家合作银行。实际上，Betterment是押注这些账户会为公司收取年费0.25%的投资顾问服务吸引来客户。

“我们希望有些客户会来找我们，并且由于我们市场领先的利率，他们会说，哇，我有兴趣看看Betterment的服务，顺便说一句，我们帮你用养老金赚钱的能力也是市场第一。”斯坦说，“我们会鼓励客户多储蓄，并成为我们的长期投资客户。”

办个借记卡

除了储蓄账户，Betterment还将推出一种与支票账户关联的借记卡，这种卡将“没有任何相关费用，”斯坦还补充说，这种卡将“没有最低余额，没有ATM机的操作费用，没有网络限制——什么限制都没有。并且在全球的ATM上取现转账都免费。”

不过，Betterment打算通过收取交易费的方式在这种借记卡上赚钱，当客户用这张卡在商家刷卡时，公司会收取一笔小额的费用。这张卡将与Visa卡以及位于堪萨斯州奥弗兰帕克的NBKC银行合作发行。（Visa卡对所有在外国ATM机上的交易收取1%的国际交易费。）

“显然，我们希望你能够带着这张卡并用起来，但你也不必听我的。”斯坦说。

客户要开一个这种在售的最高收益储蓄账户，必须加入Betterment的支票产品等待清单。不办借记卡的客户，储蓄收入会略低一些：2.43%的年收益，这也略低于Wealthfront提供的收益率。

Betterment声明，参与储蓄账户产品的客户还可以获得最高100万美元额度的存款保险，由美国联邦存款保险公司（FDIC）提供。借记卡产品，客户资金也由FDIC保障，最高赔付额度达25万美元。

锚定美联储

2018年年底，一家蹿红的名为Robinhood的金融服务公司（上周该公司估值达76亿美元）称，它将推出一种支票和储蓄产品，收益率高达令人瞠目的3%。但在推出前，Robinhood被迫撤回这一产品，后来搞明白，原来这家公司没有向监管者澄清，客户的存款资金是否由联邦保险覆盖。

当被问及Betterment将如何规避这种麻烦，斯坦说他的公司一直与监管者紧密合作。“Robinhood的麻烦，从报道上来看，主要是他们自找的。”斯坦说，“他们忽视了监管者。我们与监管者密切合作，并会一直这么做，从而确保我们提供的产品既对客户有利，又是合规的。”

谈及Robinhood的被冻结的产品，斯坦说：“这只是一个噱头，我不想对虚构的独角兽和此类事件发表评论。”

据Bankrate.com网站的数据，全美平均储蓄存款利率是0.1%。美联储货币政策的变动，会让利率也沽上沽下的。

如果美联储调整银行利率，Betterment也将调整客户利息收益率。今年6月，高盛的在线银行Marcus和数字银行新贵Ally Financial，因为预期美联储7月调整利率，已经将自己的利率降低。这两家提供的储蓄利率也算高的，曾经超过2%。（财富中文网）

译者：宣峰

Betterment is debuting the highest-yield savings account on the market.

The New York City-based financial tech startup known for roboadvising, or automated investment management, has begun promoting a new savings product, called Betterment Everyday, that will offer interest rates as high as 2.69%. Wealthfront, a competitor, earlier this year began offering a savings account that paid out, as of June 26, 2.57% annual percentage yield (APY), the next-highest-yield on the market.

Jon Stein, Betterment’s CEO and founder, explained how his company is able to provide such a high interest rate on Balancing The Ledger, Fortune’s show about the intersection of finance and technology. Essentially, Betterment is splitting people’s deposits across multiple banks, thereby enabling the company “to get you a better deal than a traditional bank,” Stein said.

“A bank only makes money if it pays you less,” Stein said. As an independent advisor, “we’re able to get the very best rates in the market and pass all of that onto our customers.”

Betterment does not plan to make money on the new savings product, which requires a minimum deposit of $10 and has “at least” four partner banks on the backend. Rather, Betterment is betting that these accounts will attract customers to the company’s investment advisory services on which it charges an annual 0.25% fee.

“We would hope that some customers come to us and, because we have this market-leading rate, they’re gonna say, Wow, I’m interested in checking out Betterment and, by the way, we also earn you more than anybody else on your retirement money,” Stein said. “We’re going to encourage them to save more, and more will become our long-term investing customers.”

Check yourself

In addition to a savings account, Betterment is debuting a checking account-linked debit card that “is going to have no fees at all, whatsoever,” Stein said. He added that there would be “no minimum balance. No fees on any ATMs. No network restrictions—nothing like that. And internationally free ATMs as well.”

Instead, Betterment plans to make money on the debit card through interchange fees, which involves taking a small cut of each transaction whenever a customer swipes the card with a merchant. The card is set to be released in partnership with Visa and NBKC Bank, based in Overland Park, Kansas. (Visa charges a 1% international fee on all foreign ATM transactions.)

“Obviously, we want you to carry the card and use it, but you don’t have to,” Stein said.

To qualify for the highest-yield savings account on offer, customers must add themselves to the waitlist for Betterment’s checking product. People who do not sign up for the debit card are set to earn slightly less on their savings: 2.43% APY, a bit lower than Wealthfront’s offer.

For the savings product, customers are eligible for up to $1 million in coverage on their deposits by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, Betterment said. For the checking product, funds are covered by FDIC insurance up to $250,000.

Fed up

At the end of 2018, Robinhood, an upstart brokerage that last week reached a private valuation of $7.6 billion, said it planned to release a checking and savings product that would earn customers an eye-popping 3.0% APY. Robinhood was forced to pull the product before its debut after it became clear the startup had not spoken to regulators to clarify whether deposited funds would be covered by federal insurance.

Asked how Betterment would avoid the same fate, Stein said that his firm had worked hand-in-hand with regulators. “The problems that Robinhood ran into, as has been reported, were largely self-inflicted,” he said. “They ignored the regulators. We have always worked closely with our regulators and continue to do so, in this case, to make sure that we’re providing a product that’s great for our customers but is also compliant.”

“Remember that’s just pure fantasy,” Stein said of Robinhood’s on-ice product. “I can’t comment on fictional unicorns and things like that.”

Per Bankrate.com, the national average interest rate on savings is 0.1%. Rates tend to move up or down depending on how the Federal Reserve tweaks monetary policy.

Betterment will likely have to adjust its consumer interest rate if the Fed changes bank interest rates. In June, Goldman Sachs’ online bank Marcus and digital bank upstart Ally Financial, which have offered some of the highest savings rates to date, above 2%, cut their rates in anticipation of a July Fed decision.