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Cash interest explained |
You will receive interest on balances in your platform cash account at the prevailing rate.
Embark Investment Services Limited acts as the custodian for investments on the Willis Owen platform and is one of our strategic partners that provides our Willis Owen ISA, GIA, Junior ISA and SIPP.
Embark places cash with a number of banking partners for safekeeping and to provide the potential for you to earn interest on money in your platform cash account. By managing cash in this way, it aims to provide better protection and a higher overall level of interest than if all funds were placed with a single bank.
The rates of interest paid by banks will vary. Embark retains a portion of the interest earned to cover its costs in managing platform cash.
Current Interest Rate
The table below shows the current customer interest rate payable on cash balances along with the amount of interest retained by Embark. The customer interest rate shown is that after accounting for interest retained by Embark:
| Date From | Customer Interest Rate | Interest retained by Embark |
|---|---|---|
| 25th March 2024 | 2.46% | 1.75% - 2.00% |
Embark can change the rate of interest at any time and it reviews the position at least quarterly. Interest is calculated and accrued daily and is credited to your account on the first of each month. If you transfer out, accrued interest is applied at the point of transfer. We will inform you if and when the interest rate changes as soon as is practicable.
Interest retained
The table below shows the yearly equivalent rates of interest Embark expects to pay based on a range of possible yearly interest rates it may earn.
| Interest Embark expects to earn | Customer Interest Rate | Interest retained by Embark |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1% | 0 – 0.46% | 0 – 0.54% |
| 1-2% | 0.46% – 0.94% | 0.54% – 1.06% |
| 2-3% | 0.94% – 1.46% | 1.06% – 1.54% |
| 3-4% | 1.46% – 2.02% | 1.54% – 1.98% |
| 4-5% | 2.02% – 2.61% | 1.98% – 2.39% |
| 5%+ | 2.61%+ | 2.39%+ |
Historic Interest Rates
To see details of historic customer interest rates, along with the amount of interest retained by Embark, click here.
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Although they are available to anyone, regardless of faith, Sharia-compliant savings accounts are designed to operate in a way that is consistent with Islamic law. With a Sharia-compliant savings account, rather than lending out your savings and charging interest then passing some of this on to you, the bank uses your money in a way that’s consistent with Islamic beliefs. This involves following an ethical code which forbids the bank from working with businesses involved in things which are against Islamic principles such as alcohol, tobacco and gambling. For this reason, Sharia-compliant savings accounts can be attractive to a broad range of people with ethical requirements, regardless of their faith.
Under Sharia banking principles, earning ‘money from money’ in the form of interest is not permissible. Instead, savers share in the profits and losses of the bank. Rather than having interest rates, Sharia-compliant savings accounts have an ‘expected profit rate’.
An expected profit rate is an indication of how much you could earn when saving with a Sharia-compliant bank and in this respect, is different from an interest rate. The expected profit rate can reduce if the bank makes less profit than expected. If this happens, we’ll let you know the new profit rate and give you the option to either continue with the new, lower rate or to cancel your account early and to receive any profit earned up until that point.
Sharia savings accounts have to comply with the UK banking regulations which require measures to be put in place to guarantee the safety of customer’s deposits. All of the Sharia-compliant accounts available via our marketplace are protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to a maximum of £85,000 per customer, per banking group.
Given that the expected profit on a Sharia compliant account is linked to the fortunes of the offering bank, it is theoretically possible that your account could make a loss. In this event, all of our Sharia-compliant partner banks operate a ‘make good’ policy to ensure that you always receive at least the amount of your original deposit if this were to happen.
For those for whom compliance with Sharia principles is important on the grounds of faith, it should be noted that the operation of the ‘make good’ policy is not Sharia compliant. You are therefore entitled to opt out of the make good policy and to instead accept the impact of any loss which may arise. To opt out, you should send a secure message through our website confirming your instruction.
