Business Checking Accounts that pay?
If you haven’t read the fine print on Dodd-Frank (and I don’t know anyone that has – including myself) – you may have missed a nice little sweetener for small business.
Effective July of 2011, banks will be allowed to pay interest on business accounts. For those of you that remember 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act was put into law that year. Part of its provisions, was a mandate that banks could no longer offer interest on business checking accounts.
Welcome to 2010, and soon 2011, where Glass-Steagall is out and Dodd-Frank is in, and with it comes interest (maybe, anyway). Robb Mandelbaum wrote a very nice piece on the whole deal over at the Times.
If you are hoping for big rates on your checking account starting next summer, I wouldn’t hold my breath at this point. With Fed Funds at almost zero, there is little to no interest to be found anywhere right now. The Feds announcement to push another 600 Billion onto the market will only force those rates to stay at rock bottom.
So while this might not put any coin in your pocket in the near term, it will be something to think about as time goes on. Think of it as one more metric to compare when picking a banking relationship.
Dan Beenken, Director of UNI Small Business Development Center
