AltaRed said
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Regardless, your point is taken as regards an apparent inconsistency between Home Bank and Fairstone Bank. Mr Stephen Smith must have his reasons such as Fairstone Bank being the mother ship with Oaken Financial, Home Trust, Home Bank et al being brands underneath that umbrella. Are Home Trust GICs available via Oaken, or are they too only available through the brokerage channel?

Only Oaken-branded GIC's are available through Oaken. Home Trust GIC's and Home Bank GIC's are available only through deposit brokers and investment dealers.

The extra deposits through their direct-to-consumer Oaken channel would be unnecessary and undesired. The situation is similar to when Fairstone Bank did a $300 million three-year deposit note issue in February.

$300 million of notes were offered. $1.1 billion of bids came in from investors. Offering increased to $400 million. $700 million of bids left untaken!

You may not have been a burden on CSRs personally but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of posts on this website that would beg to differ.

Regardless, your point is taken as regards an apparent inconsistency between Home Bank and Fairstone Bank. Mr Stephen Smith must have his reasons such as Fairstone Bank being the mother ship with Oaken Financial, Home Trust, Home Bank et al being brands underneath that umbrella. Are Home Trust GICs available via Oaken, or are they too only available through the brokerage channel?

At Scotia iTrade, I can buy Home Trust and Fairstone Bank GICs but not Home Bank. It may be an intended firewall between direct retail and brokerage.

I've been an Oaken customer for five years now, and have been on the phone with them twice during that time. I've placed >$500,000 in deposits with them, much of it re-invested amounts after GICs mature. Almost none of it took any of their CSR's time.

Oaken has the best online platform for buying GICs that I've come across, at least since Hubert's old system was decommissioned. Today, I bought a joint GIC for Mrs. Rail Baron and myself in less than two minutes online. That's impossible to do on Tangerine, for example, let alone Hubert these days.

With such online capability, I just don't see how broadening sale of GICs from institutions which are already working together, like Fairstone, Home Bank and Home Trust, opens Oaken up to hordes of difficult and demanding customers.

Now, I have had to be demanding with deposit brokers, when they input the wrong address and my GIC confirmation never arrived, or when the bank who issued me a GIC (Habib Canadian) never sent a T slip at tax time. And since I don't enjoy being a demanding customer, I've largely steered clear of deposit brokers after these two experiences, and try and buy my GICs directly from the FIs that offer them at attractive rates.

Rail Baron said
And I'm not sure that I understand the hassle factor of/for retail investors as an impediment to adding Fairstone GICs to the Oaken platform. Presumably, the merged entity of Fairstone/HT/HB already has made the investment in a retail channel, with all of its hassles, through Oaken. Why would selling Fairstone GICs on the Oaken platform add more hassle? They kept Home Bank "live" on the Oaken channel to give investors more CDIC coverage. Wouldn't Fairstone take Oaken another step in that direction by adding even more CDIC coverage for depositors like me who have more than $200,000 to place in GICs?  

Smith Financial obviously has its reasons for not making Fairstone GICs available to the retail direct channel.

I know I am likely hitting a 'hot button' here but the hundreds and thousands of posts on this site from folks burning up CSR time on 'issues' and institution hopping suggest to me it is an inordinate hassle and a significant operating cost to a business owner to have to deal with this shite. I wouldn't want any part of it as a business owner and would pay my 25bp to the brokerage channel to escape that noise, for hassle free sourcing of funds. YMMV

I'd 'Jump' on it

Dean

And I'm not sure that I understand the hassle factor of/for retail investors as an impediment to adding Fairstone GICs to the Oaken platform. Presumably, the merged entity of Fairstone/HT/HB already has made the investment in a retail channel, with all of its hassles, through Oaken. Why would selling Fairstone GICs on the Oaken platform add more hassle? They kept Home Bank "live" on the Oaken channel to give investors more CDIC coverage. Wouldn't Fairstone take Oaken another step in that direction by adding even more CDIC coverage for depositors like me who have more than $200,000 to place in GICs?

I know it's not the same, but Fairstone GICs can often be accessed through your Investment Broker account (e.g. TD Direct Investing, etc.).

Their GIC rates can be actually quite Good there !

Dean

If only Oaken could offer deposits to more banking entities within the Smith financial empire. Why not add Fairstone Bank to Home Trust and Home Bank deposits available through the Oaken channel? I'd be happy to fill another 100k of CDIC insured deposits in that case.

1 year GIC: 3.50% (previously 3.35%)
18 month GIC: 3.60% (previously 3.45%)
2 year GIC: 3.85% (previously 3.70%)
3 year GIC: 3.85% (previously 3.70%)
4 year GIC: 3.90% (previously 3.80%)
5 year GIC: 4.05% (previously 4.00%)

The new GIC rates will be applied automatically for all corresponding GICs booked on 2026/05/18, or later.

cgouimet said

And they still have their short term (< 12 months) with rates lower than their HISA ...

30-59 Days ....... 1.00%
60-89 Days ....... 1.00%
90-119 Days ..... 1.00%
120-179 Days ... 1.00%
180-269 Days ... 2.25%
270-364 Days ... 2.70%  

Oaken is right at the bottom with its short term GIC rates at 1%. Why would anyone buy such? Better rates elsewhere.

Wrayzor said

I received an email about two hours after the first post here.  

Same here.

Also good to see them continuing their 'tradition' of applying higher rates retroactively...

cgouimet said

Hmm ... And no email yet ...  

I received an email about two hours after the first post here.

GR said
GIC rates increased for 1 yr. (3.35%), 18 mos. (3.45%) and 2 years (3.70%).

https://www.oaken.com/en-ca/gi.....rates/  

And they still have their short term (< 12 months) with rates lower than their HISA ...

30-59 Days ....... 1.00%
60-89 Days ....... 1.00%
90-119 Days ..... 1.00%
120-179 Days ... 1.00%
180-269 Days ... 2.25%
270-364 Days ... 2.70%

GR said
GIC rates increased for 1 yr. (3.35%), 18 mos. (3.45%) and 2 years (3.70%).

https://www.oaken.com/en-ca/gi.....rates/  

Hmm ... And no email yet ...