Apple offers high-yield savings to card customers as deposit competition heats up

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc is seeking to attract U.S. savers with a new high-yield deposit account it announced on Monday with partner Goldman Sachs Group Inc amid increased competition among financial institutions for consumer dollars.

Apple said users of its Apple Card can earn 4.15% on savings accounts, or 10 times higher than the national average, citing March data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that showed consumers earned an average of 0.37% on savings in bank accounts.

Regional and small banks are competing for deposits by dangling promotions, including higher rates and cash bonuses for opening new accounts.

The moves come after rattled consumers moved billions of dollars to banking giants from smaller lenders in March following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

The Apple rate is higher than the 3.9% Goldman offers for an online savings account at its digital consumer bank, Marcus.

(Reporting by Nupur Anand; Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Cynthia Osterman)