The Conservatives' proposal essentially removes this limit and extends the tax privilege to all lower-rate and basic-rate income-tax payers who receive interest on their deposits.

ECONOMIST: Tax cuts

Retail investors, desperate to find alternative sources of income in the face of record-low yields on bank deposits, are another source of demand for corporate bonds.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood: Money for nothing | The

American Express earns a net interest income on the spread between the rate it earns from un-loaned amounts sitting in bank deposits and short-term investments in financial securities and the rates at which it extends credit to card members.

FORBES: American Express Charging Toward $50