Mary Poppins Visits My Blog

One of the fun things about writing a blog is how things come around. In June I did a number of posts on a continuing problem with a financial institution. (I've since moved my account.) Ms. Poppins, who evidently now lives in Kiev and in my memory, was a person of incredible sagacity, made the following comment (in part) -

How do you like financial institutions? Do you like that there is such an incredible amount of these companies? On the one hand it is great that you have a choice, but on the other hand it makes you feel lost in this large number of companies.

One of the benefits of blogs is that they are searchable. Ms. Poppins found my comments read them and responded. I thought it would be good to respond back.

Mary, if I could be so forward, Financial institutions are like any other consumer business, there are some bad and some good. I classify my feelings about them into three distinct phases. Phase #1 (Before Financial Deregulation) - I found them mostly offensive. A lot of people who went into the profession of banking were there because they could not have given a care on serving their consumers. They thought that their job was to take a fee. Most of them had a "trust" mentality - which really meant "Don't ask questions - I know better." Phase #2 - (Immediately after Deregulation) - I found them to be pretty offensive, but less so. In the words of Mao (an odd combination to deal with any economic issue) we let 100 flowers bloom. All sorts of new ideas came into the system. But so did a lot of complication. All of a sudden I could get real returns on the money I deposited with my bank (they were first called Negotiated Orders of Withdrawal (NOW accounts) but are now known simply as interest checking or money market accounts). I could get all sorts of new financial instruments including new kinds of ways to borrow. But it was complex. I needed a lot of help in getting even a good deal. Phase #3 (The Age of the Internet) I found them to be more responsive because we took the initiative to "out" the bad guys. The internet has proven to be a wonderful tool. Lots of consumer information comparing all sorts of things. Sure some of it can be misleading - but on the whole the bulk of it helps me be a better consumer. Ms. Poppins mentioned one rating service for financial institutions and those can be great. More importantly there are sites which give you a chance to run real comparisons. (E-Loan is an example but there are lots of others.) Now those who decide to be the greedy deceptive banker (think Lionel Barrymore in Its a Wonderful Life or Charlie Sheen in Wall Street) will get exposed. We have more choices and a lever on bad actors.

Thanks Mary Poppins for reminding me!