Tag: US Fed

News: Interest rate cut in US, Canada stays the course

RobH1 Comment

The Bank of Canada and the US Federal Reserve both had their last rate setting meeting of 2025 today. These meetings are of interest to the DIY investor because they set the bar for the interest rate paid on short term loans / high interest savings accounts. I track a universe of HISAs and ETFs of interest over at https://moneyengineer.ca/hisa-and-short-term-bond-table-canada-us/.

The Bank of Canada announcement is here, and the US Fed announcement is here. The Bank of Canada kept things the same, with a rate of 2.25% while the US cut their rates by a quarter point, so they’re now sitting in a range of 3.5-3.75%. Anyway, the gap between the US and Canadian rates is narrowing, but the US overnight rates are still 1.5% higher (aka 150 basis points) and so it pays to use USD money market funds and HISAs if you’re able.

The next opportunity for the banks to mess with interest rates is January 28, 2026.

News: Canada and US both lower prime rate

RobH2 Comments

To the surprise of no one, both the Bank of Canada and the US Federal Reserve lowered their headline interest rate by 1/4 of a % (that’s 25 basis points if you want to be fancy about it).

Official statement from BoC sets the policy rate at 2.5%, down from 2.75%.

Official statement from the US Fed lowers the “target range for the federal funds rate by 1/4 of point”, which puts the range between 4.0% and 4.25%1

Anyway, to the DIY investor, this will no doubt lower the rates available by the HISA providers, last captured here. A quick spot check shows no change yet2, but that won’t last, I predict. The rates have now been lowered and I’ve updated the September table accordingly. The next meetings for these orgs happens at the end of October, so this means stability for the next 6 weeks on the interest rate front.

  1. why is it range? I have no idea. ↩︎
  2. insert joke about “banker’s hours” here ↩︎