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Move Your Money Update

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  • Move Your Money Update

    Today marks the seventh day since the campaign activated the zip code search tool. In the 168 hours that have transpired, Americans have searched for banking alternatives in 16,631 zip codes. That's sixteen percent of the country actively asking the question "what can we do to effect change?" During this time we've been flooded with questions, which taught us a lot of things. Just so you know, we literally cobbled it together in about four hours and spent another four hours cleaning up the look. Then America got to field test it. During the first 48 hours we spent most of our time bomb-proofing it. You'd be amazed what people will type into a box that says "enter a five digit zip code here." Mischief managed, we were able to shift the system over to its full traffic configuration. Congratulations, America! In those 48 hours, over 115,000 of you stress-tested that tool and in the days since you've been continuing to use the tool around 45,000 times a day.

    So the burning question, of course, is "will moving your money have an effect?" And by effect, I don't mean making a momentary political statement. I mean making a structural difference to the country's financial system. The answer is yes, and here's how.

    Inside banking there's something called a "core deposit" that every American should know about. These are the most important deposits to a bank. It's the money relied on the most as the foundation for the business. The most important core deposits include the checking and savings accounts of consumers and businesses. Your accounts! All other forms of deposits and advances, and there are a number of them, are less attractive sources of funds to support a bank's lending engine.

    For each lending dollar of a bank, increasing the fraction of support for that lending dollar by core deposits (versus other forms of money) means greater confidence and stability for that bank. The effect is less pronounced in institutions that have large fractions of their business model involved in investments that yield income from non-lending uses of funds. This means it's the community institutions focused on purer "classic" banking operating models that get the most bang from your buck ... literally. So if the public shifts a small fraction of the nation's core deposit base into these institutions it magnifies the stabilizing effect on this portion of the financial system. That's provided the receiving bank is already in good shape, of course, and isn't saddled with other problems. That's why the listing tool we created for the MoveYourMoney campaign only shows the best of breed, to our best ability to identify who they might be. In future blog posts I'll discuss other types of banks and the issues facing banks not in the greatest of shape.

    Full post here.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis..._b_412681.html
    Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -Groucho

  • #2
    Re: Move Your Money Update

    Kudos.

    I was hoping there'd be a good way to track this thing.

    Many thanks, good Master.

    (I'd like to know what IRA's exact ranking critera are, however it is nice to see they have my longtime local bank on their "good" list)

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    • #3
      Re: Move Your Money Update

      I was just about to move more money to my "other" credit union acct because of this campaign but found that my credit union wasn't on the list...i'm curious what their criteria are as well. :confused:

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Move Your Money Update

        I've been looking for a similar alternative for credit cards. I can find plenty of local banks and credit unions offering cards, but they are all administered by one of the big guys. Any one with leads on a truly independent card in the US?

        There is one via the local socialist bank in Ithaca, NY, but you must be a resident of that county.

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        • #5
          Re: Move Your Money Update

          Originally posted by Marek View Post
          Any one with leads on a truly independent card in the US?
          USAA has its own credit cards. About a year ago it opened up its checking, savings and credit accounts to any American (previously you had to be military or ex-military or family thereof.) Their life and auto insurance are still only available to military related members. They aren't a small local bank, being perhaps the 20th or 25th largest bank in the U.S. But they do seem to run separately from the banks that have caused us the greatest problem and they have great service.
          Most folks are good; a few aren't.

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          • #6
            Re: Move Your Money Update

            Originally posted by sn1p3r View Post
            I was just about to move more money to my "other" credit union acct because of this campaign but found that my credit union wasn't on the list...i'm curious what their criteria are as well. :confused:
            I've glanced at a few independent ratings / rankings websites that have popped up over the past two years - and each mostly have their own little variation (tweak) based off of the standard FDIC & FFIEC grading. So a particular institution can very well show up in one guy's "falling-out-of-favor" column, yet the other guy will have them in his "no-worries-yet" column. That I have noticed.

            If a banks' ratio's are all in line, I also like to look at the prior quarter(s) trending comparisons, loan type exposure breakdown, operational efficiency ratio's, to name a few. My neophyte status usually gets me lost in the data after a short while.

            I also think it's important - in the current macro envrionment - to take a glance at what's going on within the whole peer group for your bank / credit union of choice. This will provide broader perspective, because nearly ALL of them (8,000+) do not look as swell on paper as they did 1 or 2 years ago.

            One more thing - here we are at January 6, and the latest publicly posted analytical data available is from Q3 (9/30), whereas the deadline for the 12/31 call reports due the FDIC is in about a week. Therefore, Q4 data / adjustments won't be posted for about another month. At that point I expect to see more institutions get added, and some will drop off, but I'll bet the "watch" list will continue to get longer - among ALL peer groups - just like the past several quarters.

            JMHO

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            • #7
              Re: Move Your Money Update

              Originally posted by ThePythonicCow View Post
              USAA has its own credit cards. About a year ago it opened up its checking, savings and credit accounts to any American (previously you had to be military or ex-military or family thereof.) Their life and auto insurance are still only available to military related members. They aren't a small local bank, being perhaps the 20th or 25th largest bank in the U.S. But they do seem to run separately from the banks that have caused us the greatest problem and they have great service.
              I'll second that. I've USAA for banking, insurance and credit cards and they've always been great -- no issues.

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