banking sector woes aside its looking like a good time for investors who are in the market for a certificate of deposit thats because banks are boosting the rates theyre paying on cds according to a thursday report from morgan stanley the average highest rate banks paid on a cd rose by eight basis points to 408 over the first two weeks of march according to morgan stanley analyst betsy graseck investors are also scooping up a little more return for shortterm cds as the average 1month to 12month rate grew by 12 basis points to 350 in the past two weeks she found these enticing yields on cds are a positive side effect of todays higher interest rate environment now that the federal reserve has hiked rates eight times over the past year over the span treasury yields have ticked up making even shortterm government securities an attractive place to stash cash a oneyear treasury bill yields 448 and 3month tbills offer 472 banks will increasingly need to compete with treasuries and money market funds in order to attract deposits said graseck this should push deposit rates higher even after the fed pauses at a time when deposit flight is a stressor for some banks its worth noting that cds also tend to be sticky assets thats because investors are penalized for breaking them ahead of maturity meaning they forfeit some interest depending on the term of the cd look to online banks for some of the highest rates ally bank and synchrony financial for instance are offering 5 on cds going beyond 36 months according to morgan stanley capital one financial pays 5 on 1month to 12month cds see below for morgan stanleys list of top shortterm cd rates as of march 15 with bank stability on the top of investors minds be aware that bank cds are covered by the federal deposit insurance co  bank deposits are insured up to 250000 per depositor per fdicinsured bank per ownership category including cds  cnbcs michael bloom contributed to this report