The Bank of Canada made its final key interest rate decision of 2022, which was a 50 basis points increase. 2022 has been the year of inflation and rising interest rates. Rewind back to the beginning of 2022:
- The Bank of Canada hadn’t started raising rates yet
- Wyth Financial had the highest savings account interest rate on our comparison chart at 1.55%
- Hubert Financial had the top 1-year GIC on our GIC comparison chart at 2.00%, and the top 5-year GIC at 3.00%
- The topic of brokerage investment savings accounts was barely discussed
- We were discussing short-term promos hovering around 2.00%
In the present day:
- The Bank of Canada has raised interest rates by a total of 4.00% (or 400 basis points) this year
- Wyth Financial is closing
- Oaken Financial has the top nationally-available savings account interest rate at 3.40%
- Oaken Financial has the top nationally-available 1-year GIC on our GIC comparison chart at 5.25%, and motusbank has the top 5-year GIC at 5.20%
- Brokerage investment savings accounts are a hot topic of discussion with one offering a rate above 4.00%
- Some savings account promos offer 5.00%
The year is not quite done, and we’re likely to see more savings account increases (with the most recent changes at Canadian Tire Bank from 2.40% to 3.00%, Achieva Financial from 2.95% to 3.25%, and EQ Bank’s TFSA from 2.50% to 3.00%). GIC rates will also fluctuate, although potentially in the other direction, as EQ Bank and Motive Financial have recently decreased some of their GIC rates.
Acquisition news
Non-inflation / non-rate news has been trying to grab headlines recently:
TFSA reminders
Lastly, the additional TFSA contribution room coming in 2023 is $6,500. If you have existing TFSA funds that you would like to transfer to another financial institution, consider withdrawing it before the end of December and then re-contributing it in January in order to avoid direct TFSA-to-TFSA transfer fees and administration work.
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