Portal launches to help charities find better return rates for their cash
Melanie May | 16 May 2017 | News
An online portal has launched that helps charities increase revenue by finding the best returns on their savings and cash in the bank.
Cascade Cash Management (Cascade) has launched the service to help charities protect and increase the returns of their cash. It works by using a proprietary algorithm that searches through the savings accounts available from banks and building societies to find those with the best combination of rates for a charity’s preferences for liquidity, security and return. Cascade’s dataset is updated on a daily basis, recording and monitoring every account from all providers and across terms ranging from instant access up to five years.
The service is aimed at charities with at least £250,000 in the bank. Financial directors or controllers of a charity can access the online portal directly, and export reports detailing their holdings. Users are also notified of any better rate opportunities or approaching maturities to help them ensure the rates remain at the top of the market.
Cascade does not handle any cash itself but provides administrative support, issuing the documentation and application forms for the financial director of the charity to complete once an account has been recommended, and leaving the opening and closing of accounts to them.
In one example, a charity with £7.5m in the bank earned an extra £63,000 in a year through the platform, by placing its money in multiple accounts that had better rates than its existing ones.
Dr Emma Black, managing director of Cascade, said:
“Many charities have ‘rainy day’ money and high net worth cash investments of over £250,000 sat in one bank, or in tied in low yielding savings accounts. This is such a waste of potential return that could be used for so many great charitable purposes, with exposure to only one provider unnecessarily increasing the charity’s risk.
“Our portal has individual secure log in details and a comprehensive dataset using our unique optimisation and proprietary technology that can administer bespoke cash portfolios in seconds. It is not just all about good interest rates. Our product means clients can improve the term structure of their cash (from instant access up to five years) while also allowing for them to ensure that they have the desired degree of protection under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or European equivalents.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.