Goldman Sachs re-opens Marcus to new UK savers

Goldman Sachs has reopened its Marcus savings account to new UK customers.

The American banking giant stopped new savers from signing up to the market-beating savings accounts back in June 2020 after a surge in demand.

Marcus will offer 0.5 per cent on cash deposited into new accounts, this time last year the rate was around 1.45 per cent, which then fell to 1.3 per cent in March, then 1.2 per cent in April and again to 1.05 per cent in May before new customer signups were halted altogether. 

The market-beating rate offered with the Marcus account is roughly double what you can earn with the average easy-access account currently on the market.

A spokesperson for the bank said: “We temporarily withdrew our Online Savings Account in June 2020 following a surge in demand from savers. Since then, conditions in the savings market have changed and we are able to make our Online Savings Account available again to new customers, in line with our business plan."

"We hold around £21bn in deposits today, so still have capacity before reaching the ringfencing threshold. We continue to monitor our growth very carefully.” 

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Goldman was forced to shutter its easy-access savings account as its 500,000 deposited billions of pounds, meaning the bank was edging closer and closer to regulatory limits.

At the time, Marcus had more than £21bn in its saving accounts and British banking regulations require companies with deposits of more than £25bn to become a separate entity from its parent company, called ring-fencing.

UPDATE 10-02-2021 - The article was updated to include a comment from Marcus by Goldman Sachs.