A New Era for GMAC Bank?

GMAC, or General Motors Acceptance Corporation, was founded in 1919 by General Motors as a means to providing financing to people who wished to buy cars. Over the years, GMAC evolved to include insurance and mortgage operations. In 2000, GMAC formed GMAC Bank to provide commercial financing and retail banking services to customers. In 2001, GMAC financed its 150 millionth vehicle, coming in at over one trillion dollars worth of financed vehicles. When the US Government took over a majority of the ailing General Motors in 2009, GMAC Bank came with it.

In 2009, the banking arm of GMAC, now under the auspices of the US Government, re-branded itself as Ally Financial. It entered into a deal with Chrysler to provide financing services for Chrysler vehicles. Ally Financial also launched a fresh new retail banking operation, branding it Ally Bank. Ally Bank is founded on three principles: Do Right, Talk Straight, and Be Obviously Better. Ally Bank prides itself on having no fine print in its advertisements to customers. Ally Financial also provides the services of the previous GMAC bank - the automotive financing, commercial financing and mortgage arms remained intact.

Though Ally Bank has only been around for a few years, the retail banking world has taken notice. Ally Bank has been somewhat of a pioneer in the online banking world - there are many offers and accounts that are only available online, such as an "online savings account", where you can open a savings account without ever having to go to a brick-and-mortar banking location. This particular account has been given awards by Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine and Money Magazine. With its history and reputation as the venerable former GMAC bank, Ally Financial seems to be uniquely capable of handling the myriad of banking challenges of the economic slowdown, and is positioning itself to be a bank of the 21st century.