FDIC to restrict some banks' CD rates

For instance, customers who wish to earn the high yield are required to use a debit card 10 to 15 times per month outside of ATM transactions. That generates fees for the bank. Customers are also required to receive their monthly statement online instead of by mail, which saves the bank a considerable amount of money. Customers who fail to live up to the requirements receive the bank's standard interest rate for that month which, in this environment, is often 0.25 percent or less.

"When you look at all of the incremental cash inflows and outflows, RewardChecking is a very low cost account for the bank," says Krajicek. "We only serve community financial institutions. If you look at institutions with assets of $750 million or less, our failure rate is about 40 percent lower than the general market. I'm not saying RewardChecking makes you fail less; I'm saying I think we have really smart clients. I think the clients who work with us are more aware of their business. Our percentage of the (banks) that are in the less-than-well-capitalized category is relatively low compared to the general market but it's still something we care about."

The interest rate restrictions kick in on deposit products at less-than-well-capitalized banks as of Jan. 1. Fixed-rate CDs purchased prior to then are not affected.

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