They have arrived to bring modern savers closer to investing in ETFs and shares - but now they are attracting attention with comparatively high interest rates on staid money market accounts: After Trade Republic, Scalable Capital is the second so-called neo-broker to open an account with an interest rate that is the same as that of many banks exceeds.

Christian Siedenbiedel

Editor in Business.

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It is about the so-called clearing accounts.

These are the accounts for the securities account in which an investor's uninvested money is located.

There, Scalable now pays 2.3 percent for amounts up to 100,000 euros.

However, only to customers of the "Prime plus" program - for which a monthly fee of 4.99 euros per month is due.

Three weeks ago, Trade Republic started a similar promotion with 2 percent interest on its clearing account.

Scalable is now advertising with the slogan "Germany's highest interest rate".

No real money market account

Nevertheless, the new offer will not take the top spot in the Internet comparison tables, for example on the consumer portal Biallo: "Since it is not a real call money account, but a clearing account that is linked to the opening of a securities account, we will not use Scalable or Trade Republic in list our call money comparison,” says Biallo.

It is a separate offer via the affiliated partner bank Baader.

In principle, it works like with Trade Republic with the clearing account, which is connected to the deposit account for money deposits and withdrawals;

However, not via a collective trustee account as with Trade Republic, but as a separate clearing account for each customer, which can only be used in the “Prime plus” model for EUR 4.99 per month.

"The banks are very reluctant to pass on the higher ECB interest rates to their customers - we as a neo-broker are now acting much more decisively," said Scalable founder Erik Podzuweit of the FAZ. The main goal of the company is, of course, to provide customers with a platform for investing in ETF and savings plans.

"But we advise them to keep three to four months' salary in cash for emergencies," said Podzuweit.

They also want to make customers an attractive offer for this money: "In the long term, we consider investing in ETFs to be the most sensible thing - even if the past year was perhaps a bad example."

Max Herbst, who compares interest rates for FMH Finanzberatung, said: "Why not - if the ECB pays 2 percent interest on deposits and you pay the customer 2 or 2.3 percent, then this is an extremely good marketing offer." deduct the costs for "Prime plus" at Scalable, the offer is better than the 2 percent otherwise offered from an investment amount of 20,000 euros.

"And if you want to invest 100,000 euros and have always considered working with securities, this is a super offer for you," said Herbst.

But you also have to know that the variable interest rates there could be lowered again at any time.

With classic new customer offers from banks, on the other hand, they are often guaranteed for some time.

"It will be an interesting race to see who offers the best interest rates and attracts the most new customers, because that's what it's all about," said Herbst: "The investor can be right."

And Horst Biallo from the platform of the same name said: “The ECB will probably raise the key interest rate by a further 0.5 percentage points to 3.5 percent in early February and mid-March.

That should give a further boost to overnight interest rates – we expect the peak of overnight interest to be three before the decimal point by spring.”

Spanish bank leads overnight comparison

At the top of Biallo's call money comparison table is Suresse Direct Bank with 2.2 percent.

However, the money there is not covered by the German but by the Spanish deposit insurance.

The interest rate is guaranteed until the end of May.

The ING with German deposit insurance offers 2 percent, but only for new customers, guaranteed for four months.

The Consorsbank pays 2.1 percent, guaranteed for six months.

The institute is protected by the French deposit insurance via the parent company BNP Paribas and is also a voluntary member of the deposit protection fund of the Association of German Banks via the German branch.

The car banks are also currently relatively high up in the overnight money rankings: the Opel Bank, for example, offers 2.1 percent for new customers, guaranteed for three months.

And Renault Bank direct pays 2 percent for new customers, guaranteed for three months - and at least 1.4 percent for existing customers.