Influx

Bankwatch has an interesting post about the market for savings.

It suggests that category innovator ING has created a host of wannabe players who are trying to create similar, but better products. The blog mentions HSBC, Citibank and Emigrant.

All players appear to be offering online accounts, with high savings rates and most of the ads are using strong bold colors, a look and feel that ING established.

Citibank’s program has been successful, attracting $3billion in savings, the equivalent of opening 23 new branches.

Several years ago, when ING Direct entered the market, it built a case for getting Americans to save. They even ran ads that talked about the importance of looking after your money.

Today, no one is out there telling Americans to save, instead banks appear to be doing two things to market themselves, building air cover for their brands and driving business through hard-driving direct print, out of home and online.

HSBC is another aggressive market entrant is a good example of a bank using this approach with brand air cover being built through its “Different Points of View” global campaign and lots of hard driving direct that talks about rates. This appears to be working, driving deposits from $1 billion in December 2005 to $3.8 billion at the end of March 2006.

As the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates, look for other established players to get more aggressive and perhaps some new online only entrants who can take advantage of their low-cost base.