Ditto

For 18 month FD does the bank pay interest monthly?

I think no monthly interest under EFD

Ambank online FD promo if place for 18m months will only get paid interest on maturity. This is too long for me.

UOB FD promo for Jan'23:

6m 3.5%
12m 4.05%

BNM OPR will next thursday see the final 25 basis pt rise? Per Bloomberg report they expect BNM to push OPR to 3% and stop. They also see other central banks in SEA following the same strategy given the US Fed may halt rate increases to 5% which is 50 basis points away. Meanwhile gold prices have already reacted.

Sentiments change. Why FD rates drop when OPR unchanged? Is this justified? My guess is if banks drop their FD rates too much and fast I may not be convinced if ringgit weakens, inflation stays high and 3M KLIBOR rate stays unchanged. That's my humble take now.

But OCBC management like to think they are the superior, safer bank

OPR unchanged and they drop their offer by 1%. This bank deserved to be called pariah bank? I do think so.

OPR adjustments traditionally are used to fight inflation. Recently, due to the western central banks' policies, I think OPR has been used to manage the strength of the RM. Perhaps this is what some people are seeing when they forecast higher interest rates

Promises must be kept ya?

Bad news HLB has lowered its TIA rates. Example 6 mths lowered from 4.2% to 3.9%

Unless you hv sufficient funds in savings a/c, yes you need to set aside 10k in casa

Still available until further notice. Likely may disappear if OPR unchanged 9/3!

I tend to think OPR will be unchanged in March but will likely go up by 25 pts in the may meeting. Given a choice I think govt priority is to seek economic recovery

Not possible, spread between FD rate and OPR is too wide. Why should bank offer FD at 10% when it can borrow from other banks at 4%. I am not banker but I think the logic is like this.

US current estimate is for interest rate target to be 5.5 - 5.75%! Kita long long already mampus if want to ikut empire of lies

The Fed's raising of interest rates resulted in the closure of SVB and many depositors potentially losing most of their deposits as many were not insured. SVB suffered huge unrealised losses when its bond holdings were revalued using current interest rates which were much higher than the coupon rates. This raises the question whether Fed will raise its interest rates at the 22 March meeting

3 May OPR increase seems a less likely outcome due to state elections and negative impact on US of SVB closure. I agree with your strategy lock in highest possible FD rates. I am comfortable with present rates but rates may fall fast if negative sentiments keep coming up.

The less exposed a bank is to the US the safer other things being equal. For example, in Malaysia the last 10 yrs the OPR range was 1.75% to 2.75%. In contrast the US Fed rate ranged from 0 to 5%. This is just to kick the ball rolling on the safety of our deposits in Malaysia