When Rajesh and Sandhya got married in 2018, they decided that they would finally start making responsible financial decisions. Having had fun through their 20s, they were now looking forward to having a family, and be financially prepared for it.
When they started asking family members, friends and financial advisors for inputs, it was evident that the sentiments in the financial markets were of caution. Things were slowing down and risk was getting higher, and equity-linked investments were to be chosen carefully, they were told. “The most common advice we got was to diversify the portfolio, and always have no-risk investments which are liquid and have assured returns. Especially in this climate, and for people like us who don’t have too much risk appetite, it made total sense,” Sandhya explains.
Sandhya’s sentiment is echoed by several others who are either just starting out or have been investing for several years, experts say. The mantra for those touchy about risk is to have some safe investments as a part of their portfolio where the capital is safe under all circumstances. FDs and RDs, are an obvious choice for your 2019 investment goals.
“Fixed and recurring deposits have long been a fundamental investment for most investors, irrespective of their risk profile. With the prevailing volatility in financial markets, we see a renewed interest by customers to invest in fixed and recurring deposits as they offer a combination of attractive interest rates, liquidity, safety of capital and assured returns,” says Pranav Mishra, Head – Retail Liabilities Group, ICICI Bank.
Further, experts point out that the government has also proposed to increase the TDS (tax deducted at source) threshold on Fixed Deposit and other savings products to Rs. 40,000 from Rs 10,000. “This increase will encourage customers to invest more in Fixed Deposits,” Mishra says.
Making your deposits work extra hard
This is where banks which provide financial products can innovate. If a financially-aware investor is looking for safer investment options, they would still want that extra benefit, just that little more which can give them more returns in some way or the other – it could be life insurance or be a piggybank for that Europe trip. Say hi to ICICI Bank’s ‘FD Xtra’.
“To offer our customers added advantage in their investment in this category, we are delighted to launch ‘FD Xtra’, a new range of fixed and recurring deposits. These deposits are aligned to various life-goals of a customer like protection through a term plan, option of investing in equity markets through mutual fund SIPs or planning for requirements like higher education, retirement corpus, travel among others,” Mishra explains.
There are several variants of ‘FD Xtra’. One of them is ‘FD Life’. It offers customers in the 18-50 age group dual benefit - investment growth from the FD and security through a free term life insurance of one year. This first-of-its-kind combo offers competitive interest rates and the option to the customer to renew it next year.
If you are a fan of Mutual Funds, but don’t want to risk your capital, ‘FD Invest’ is right up your alley. Another industry-first deposit scheme, ‘FD Invest’ will help customers invest the interest earned on FDs in monthly Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) of a mutual fund of their choice from ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company. ‘FD Invest’ safeguards principal amount.
Another variant is ‘FD Income’, which will enable investors to be flexible with the pay-out. Available in the form of FDs and RDs, they allow customers to receive their maturity proceeds in the way that suits their goals. Customers can choose to receive the entire maturity amount as a monthly income for a tenure of their choice. Alternatively, they can choose to receive 30% of the amount as lump sum on maturity of the investment and the remaining 70% as a monthly income for a tenure of their choice.
ICICI Bank also offers customers the convenience of an instant platinum credit card against FD without any joining or annual fees. This enables new-to-credit customers to conveniently get a credit card.
Additionally, they can apply for ‘FD Income’ through internet banking. To apply for ‘FD Xtra’ deposits, customers can visit their nearest ICICI Bank branch. Check out more details here. Please read the terms and conditions of all the schemes before investing.
This article was produced in association with ICICI Bank by TNM Marquee.