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Oddly enough, the two unrelated items in my previous entry just got linked.
In 1881, the Dutch government created the Rijkspostspaarbank, the Royal Mail Savings Bank, a bank meant to stimulate savings and the owning of bank accounts by everyone. It did not have any branches, but operated from Post Offices, and pioneered home banking by sending you all transaction paperwork to your home together with free envelopes. Think of it as Internet Banking without the Internet, with your bank book being this stack of forms to arrange paying bills, recurring bills, direct debits, transfers, loans with a whole stack of prepaid pre-adressed envelopes, and every transaction being followed with mailing a small statement back. This bank also stimulated electronic banking between banks very early, like many Western European countries did, to the point that you could just send a form to your bank to have money transferred from your account to anyone's account in all kinds of recurring configurations, and which is why us Euros get so confused when somebody in the US gives us a check and we have no idea what it represents or what we are supposed to do with it. Cash it? Whut? Why didn't you just tell your bank to give mine money? I have to take this to a teller? Send it to my bank but I have to sign it? Whut?
For actual deposits and withdrawals Postbank clients would go to the Post Office this bank (and then ATMs appeared so even that went away), and there were other financial services to be had at the post office too like mortgages, but most of it was really all done through brochures sent home and forms sent back. This bank took stimulating banking seriously, as was its government mandate: it pioneered offering these mail-based savings accounts to children 12 and older, stimulating a country to start banking and saving from early ages, managed by themselves. Yes, I was getting allowances into and paying magazine subscriptions from my bank account at 13.
The government divested itself from this bank, now called the Postbank, in 1986. It merged with an insurance company called Nationale Nederlanden to become Internationale Nederlanden Groep. Check those initials. Yes, my teenage bank account was part of what is now ING. In fact, it still is, it got converted into an adult account with the Postbank. Being very used to not having branches, ING had no problem going into banking in other countries using the model of direct banking, especially now they don't need to send you a stack of scratch-card / fill-in forms and just give you an Internet login. Many countries now have a local version of ING Direct, a savings bank whose main angle to attract customers is to always offer really really good savings rates. When they hit the US, I first went Huh? The lion logo? Is that 'ING' in INGDirect really..? Then I went OMG, it really is good ole ING. Then I opened an account and got the best interest ever for my 3-month fuck-you fund (now gone).
Well, remember how Icesave was the same attempt by an Icelandic bank, Landesbanki, to enter consumer saving that same way, starting with the Netherlands and 300.000 consumers in the UK? And that Icesave collapsed, locking that money in to the point the UK government has to guarantee it all for the UK savers because Icesave has announced it won't? ING just announced they're buying up the 22.000 UK consumer savings accounts of another bank, Heritage bank, owned by Landesbanki as well. I hope ING also buys the Icesave accounts up.
Also, the UK is starting proceedings against Iceland.
In 1881, the Dutch government created the Rijkspostspaarbank, the Royal Mail Savings Bank, a bank meant to stimulate savings and the owning of bank accounts by everyone. It did not have any branches, but operated from Post Offices, and pioneered home banking by sending you all transaction paperwork to your home together with free envelopes. Think of it as Internet Banking without the Internet, with your bank book being this stack of forms to arrange paying bills, recurring bills, direct debits, transfers, loans with a whole stack of prepaid pre-adressed envelopes, and every transaction being followed with mailing a small statement back. This bank also stimulated electronic banking between banks very early, like many Western European countries did, to the point that you could just send a form to your bank to have money transferred from your account to anyone's account in all kinds of recurring configurations, and which is why us Euros get so confused when somebody in the US gives us a check and we have no idea what it represents or what we are supposed to do with it. Cash it? Whut? Why didn't you just tell your bank to give mine money? I have to take this to a teller? Send it to my bank but I have to sign it? Whut?
For actual deposits and withdrawals Postbank clients would go to the Post Office this bank (and then ATMs appeared so even that went away), and there were other financial services to be had at the post office too like mortgages, but most of it was really all done through brochures sent home and forms sent back. This bank took stimulating banking seriously, as was its government mandate: it pioneered offering these mail-based savings accounts to children 12 and older, stimulating a country to start banking and saving from early ages, managed by themselves. Yes, I was getting allowances into and paying magazine subscriptions from my bank account at 13.
The government divested itself from this bank, now called the Postbank, in 1986. It merged with an insurance company called Nationale Nederlanden to become Internationale Nederlanden Groep. Check those initials. Yes, my teenage bank account was part of what is now ING. In fact, it still is, it got converted into an adult account with the Postbank. Being very used to not having branches, ING had no problem going into banking in other countries using the model of direct banking, especially now they don't need to send you a stack of scratch-card / fill-in forms and just give you an Internet login. Many countries now have a local version of ING Direct, a savings bank whose main angle to attract customers is to always offer really really good savings rates. When they hit the US, I first went Huh? The lion logo? Is that 'ING' in INGDirect really..? Then I went OMG, it really is good ole ING. Then I opened an account and got the best interest ever for my 3-month fuck-you fund (now gone).
Well, remember how Icesave was the same attempt by an Icelandic bank, Landesbanki, to enter consumer saving that same way, starting with the Netherlands and 300.000 consumers in the UK? And that Icesave collapsed, locking that money in to the point the UK government has to guarantee it all for the UK savers because Icesave has announced it won't? ING just announced they're buying up the 22.000 UK consumer savings accounts of another bank, Heritage bank, owned by Landesbanki as well. I hope ING also buys the Icesave accounts up.
Also, the UK is starting proceedings against Iceland.
