IndyMac CD rates surge as its stock price plunges

For opportunistic savers, IndyMac Bancorp's CD yields are a bonanza.

Struggling to hold on to depositors, IndyMac is offering the highest yields in the nation on six-month and one-year certificates of deposit. And the troubled Pasadena-based thrift isn't just edging out competitors on yield -- it's trouncing them.

That raises some questions, of course -- including the moral-hazard question: Should a money-losing financial institution be permitted to pay well-above-market deposit rates under the protective umbrella of federal deposit insurance?

For a six-month CD with a $5,000 minimum deposit, IndyMac's website Wednesday was offering an annualized yield of 4.1% as an online "special."

The next-highest yield on a six-month CD was 3.7%, available from three banks: Corus Bank of Chicago, GMAC Bank and Charlotte, N.C.-based NewDominion Bank, according to bankrate.com.