Acacia Federal Savings Bank is offering a 60 Month CD that pays 4.50% APY. That's currently the highest 5 year CD rate on the BestCashCow rate tables.

BankDeals, which first notes this offer, reports that the offer is nationally available and accounts can be opened via an online application. The application requires you to sign and send-in a signature card and the account can be funded via wire or check. When the CD expires, the funds can be withdrawn via a check or a $12 outgoing wire transfer.

Acacia Federal Savings is based in Viriginia and serves the great Washington DC metro areas. It is a division of Acacia Life and had assets of $1.6 billion as of the end of 2007. Bauer Financial gives the bank 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for safety and soundess, a decent rating.

Acacia is a thrift insitution which operates in the Washington DC metro area. It is a subsidiary of the Acacia Life Insurance Company and had assets of $1.5 billion at the end of 2007.

• View top one-year online CD Rates.

Flagstar Bank if offering a competitive 48 month (4 year) CD paying 4.50% APY. The rate may vary by location. BankDeals is reporting that the rate is good in TX, CA, FL and NY. I also tried MA and got the 4.5% APY rate also. Ironically, the rate is only 4.24% APY in Flaglar's market area of GA, MI, IN.

The rate is very competitive. According to the BestCashCow rate tables, the top 3 year CD rate is 3.8% APY while the top 5 year cd rate is 4.06% APY.

Bauer Financial provides a 2 Star rating for Flagstar (out of 5 stars) for safety and soundness, reflecting the bank's problems with delinquent mortgages and foreclosures. According to the Detroil Free Press, the bank has approval to receive $266 million from the $700 billion TARP. The deal is dependent on Flagstar raising $250 from MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC, a New York private equity firm specializing in distressed companies.

As always, be sure to stay within FDIC limits when making a deposit or opening an account.

Thanks to BankDeals for finding this offer.

The Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service (CDARS) provides up $50,000,000 of FDIC insurance for depositors via its system of banks. It's worth looking into if you have a lot of money and are seeking the return and safety of certificates of deposit.

The registry, which is owned and operated by a private company called Promontory Interfinancial Network operates by helping banks distribute deposits to other participating banks that also provide FDIC insurance. Here's how it operates:

You find a bank that participates in the program.

Let's say for this example you have $5,000,000 you want to deposit.

1. You deposit this into the bank and sign the CDARS documents.
2. Your $5,000,000 deposit is broken into smaller amounts that are below FDIC limits and then sent to other CDARS participating banks. In this case, it might be broken into $90,000 chunks and sent to 50 banks. The fifty-first bank might receive $50,000. The amount is below the FDIC limit of $100,000 to allow for the growth in interest. Because the amount is below FDIC insurance limits ($250,000 if the CD expires before December 31, 2009, or $100,000 if it expires after), the full amount will be covered.
3. You'll receive one statement and one interest rate (the rate initially given by the original bank). The other banks agree to honor this rate when they take the deposit money.
4. At the end of the term, you'll go to the original bank where you can withdraw the full amount, renew a CD, or do something else with the money. Up to $50,000,000 can be insured this way.

I spoke with John Labarre, the CFO of Family Federal Savings in Fitchburg, MA and a member of CDARS. He told me that banks might charge a slightly lower rate on a Certificate of Deposit offered via CDARS to make up for the transaction fee that Promontory Interfinancial charges to use the network. Depending on the customer and their relationship with the bank they might waive the fee or take it out of the yield. He also told me that using CDARS is about convenience. Customers who want FDIC protection on a larger amount of money don't have to open accounts at multiple banks, all providing different rates and statements every month. CDARS consolidates all of this. He also told me that they have seen an increase in interest in CDARS in the past couple of months.

• Learn more about CDARS
• See participating CDARS banks