Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but yesterday the Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged — again. This is of interest to DIY investors only because it drives the kinds of rates you can expect from high-interest savings accounts and the like. I’ve updated the page that tracks some HISAs and cash-like ETFs over here.
The overnight rate remains at 2.25%. That makes 6 straight rate announcements with no change. The next one for the Bank of Canada happens on September 2nd. Next up is the US Federal Reserve on July 28,
To the surprise of nobody, the Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged — again. This is of interest to DIY investors only because it drives the kinds of rates you can expect from high-interest savings accounts and the like. I try to keep a table up-to-date with all the latest and greatest news for both HISAs and ETFs that are like HISAs over here.
The overnight rate remains at 2.25%. That makes 5 straight rate announcements with no change. The next one for the Bank of Canada happens on July 15th. The next one for the US Federal Reserve is next week, on June 16th.
I’ve been making monthly posts about the current interest rates available via “Series F” High Interest Savings Accounts (HISAs) and HISA-like ETFs for a while now. These are an excellent place to park your money. My current broker, Questrade, gives me access to HISAs, but they are not free to trade, hence of zero interest1 to me — I use HISA-like ETFs instead, some options I uncovered earlier this year are discussed over here.
Anyway, I’ve decided to make things a bit easier and make the HISA table a permanent fixture at the Money Engineer. You can always find the most recent version of the table over here: https://moneyengineer.ca/hisa-and-short-term-bond-table-canada-us/, so feel free to bookmark it. (It’s a submenu of the DIY Investors menu found under All Readers.) I’ll generally make updates to it any time the interest rates change in Canada or the US, which they did last week.
If ever I’ve missed an update, or you see a problem, always happy to hear from you — just shoot me a note.
Insert joke about falling interest rates / typical big bank interest here. ↩︎
HISAs are “High Interest Savings Accounts” and offer a nearly zero risk, highly liquid way to earn some interest on your cash holdings. If your broker doesn’t give you access to HISAs (or you have to pay large transaction fees to acquire them), then there’s also ETFs that fit the bill, and some of them are now in this table, too.
Since there’s no central bank meetings until the very end of this month, most of the September 2025 version of this table applies. The exception are the ETFs, which publish new yields monthly, so those figures are updated in the table below:
Canadian HISA and HISA-like ETF rates, last updated October 3 2025
ZMMK is a very short-term bond fund that carries more risk than a HISA, but gives a slightly better return as a result. ZMMK appears in my ETF All-Stars list.
Since I hold a substantial amount of USD-denominated ETFs, I also track US interest rates.
USA HISA and HISA-like ETF rates, last updated October 3, 2025
UCSH and HISU invest in HISAs exclusively; I instead use ICSH which is a rough equivalent of ZMMK in terms of portfolio makeup. Like ZMMK, I enjoy a slight premium in yield as a reward for taking a bit more risk.
HISAs, for those in the know1, are “High Interest Savings Accounts” and offer a nearly zero risk, highly liquid2, way to earn some interest on your cash holdings. If your broker doesn’t give you access to HISAs (or you have to pay large transaction fees to acquire them3), then there’s also ETFs that fit the bill, and some of them are now in this table, too.
CASH and HISA are ETFs that hold HISAs; I’d expect their rates to drift lower next month. ZMMK is a very short-term bond fund that carries more risk than a HISA, but gives a slightly better return as a result. ZMMK appears in my ETF All-Stars list.
Since I hold a substantial amount of USD-denominated ETFs, I also track US interest rates.
USA HISA and HISA-like ETF rates, last updated September 24, 2025
UCSH and HISU invest in HISAs exclusively; I instead use ICSH which is a rough equivalent of ZMMK in terms of portfolio makeup. Like ZMMK, I enjoy a slight premium in yield as a reward for taking a bit more risk.
