Ally Bank is a new entity that's arisen out of the former GMAC. It should have been a chance to doing something very different, but it still looks like old banking.
Here's what they say on their website.
"We are Ally Bank, built on the foundation of GMAC Financial Services. And with that experience we’ve learned that these times demand change and a new way of doing business. So we’re taking banking in a new direction.
We’re a bank that values integrity as much as deposits. A bank that will always be open, accountable, and honest. Yes, honest. We won’t deal in half-truths, kindatruths, or truths only buried in fine print. That’s because we don’t have anything to hide. We’re always going to give it to you straight.
That means no monthly fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balances. It means developing new products that give you more options, like our No Penalty CD that lets you withdraw your money if you need to. And it means keeping our promise that our rates will always be among the top. It’s just the right thing to do."
Is this bank really doing anything different, it sounds good, but the promises and products seem fairly standard.
If the financial services industry is going to rebuild its reputation, it's going to need to invest in some serious product development. Without this, it's just going to be a series of hollow promises.
Posted by Ed Cotton
Gillian studied Social Anthropology at Cambridge and then went into journalism with the Financial Times. Most books on finance are pretty dull affairs, but her book Fool's Gold, which tells the story of the derrivatives team at J.P. Morgan reads like a thriller.
You can get a sampling of her intellect and storytelling abilities by listening to a lecture she gave recently at the London School of Economics.
Posted by Ed Cotton
(1) Via Paul Kedrosky
Posted by Ed Cotton
(1) We are used to banks being slow and unresponsive when it comes to product development and it's therefore great to see Wells responding to real consumer needs and offering something useful to consumers.
Posted by Ed Cotton
"As I sat there on that horrible Monday, watching the whole financial world on the brink of collapse, I thought back to all the midnight oil I’d burnt writing these columns, all the crappy hotels I’d stayed in while making various television shows. And how all of that revenue would be lost for a raft of reasons I simply didn’t understand.
Of course I made strenuous efforts to get my money out of AIG as soon as the scale of its problems became apparent. But it wasn’t possible. It had shut the fund in which I’d invested and it would remain closed for three months while it tried to sell the assets. “We need to do this in an orderly fashion,” said the man on the phone, calmly.
Inwardly I was screaming. I don’t give a shit about an orderly fashion, any more than a man in the trenches wants to look smart while running for his life. It’s my money. I gave it to you. You’ve squandered it on a Mexican’s house in San Diego and a stupid football team and that’s your problem. Not mine.
It turned out, however, that I was wrong. It was my problem, so I decided to try to understand banking. And what I’ve gleaned from a two-week crash course is that it is completely unfathomable. There isn’t a single person in the entire world who has the first idea how the system works."
Posted by Ed Cotton
Recent commitments to green initiatives by the financial sector are creating talk that energy will be a bigger business revolution than the Internet. It’s easy to understand why with the kind of money we’ve recently seen flowing from big banks. MSNBC reported that Citibank pledged $50 billion to curb emissions and plans to invest $31 billion in clean energy and alternative energy over the next 10 years. This announcement was followed by a $20 billion commitment to support growth in environmentally friendly activities to reduce global warming by Bank of America. Clinton recently spoke about supporting initiatives with a plan for 5 major banks to fund green initiatives by creating financing solutions that will facilitate the construction of green buildings.
European initiatives include a recent commitment of 378 million Euros by a group of banks for the financing of the first ever offshore wind farm that will power 125,000 homes. These are the kind of projects that banks will start investing in in the future.
These programs are step one of a two-part initiative which also requires the weening off of dirty energy. What this means for financial institutions as well as investors is a careful balancing act that would eventually mean less financing of coal-fired power plants and other emissions emitting energy sources.
Financial institutions are looking to adopt new green programs that are becoming increasingly attractive to their consumers. Wells Fargo just added eco-friendly choices for it’s reward card holders and BAC and Citi plan to follow. This will let consumers accumulate green points that can be used to benefit clean energy projects.
These initiatives are important to consumers, a LOHAS poll revealed that:
- 68% state that knowing a company is mindful of its impact on the environment and society makes them more likely to buy their products and services,
- 52% state that it makes them more likely to buy stock.
Corporate boardrooms are taking note and the implications will be far reaching.