This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Ally Bank has implemented The Pew Charitable Trust's disclosure format for key fees, terms and conditions for all of its deposit products — a first for any bank, executives say.
"The Ally Bank team constantly challenges itself to go beyond consumer expectations to set a new standard for customer service," said Diane Morais, Ally Bank deposits and line of business integration executive. "Ally has always worked to make our disclosures and practices straightforward and easy to understand, so applying the Pew format was a natural next step. The easier it is for consumers to compare banks, the more the value of Ally stands out."
The consumer-friendly format is designed to help customers of the Midvale-headquartered bank better understand fees and policies.
In addition to applying the disclosure format in developing its Straight Talk Product Guides for Ally checking, online savings and money market products, the Bank recently added the following guides:
• No Penalty CD
• Raise Your Rate Certificate of Deposit
• High Yield Certificate of Deposit
• IRA High Yield Certificate of Deposit
• IRA Raise Your Rate Certificate of Deposit
In May 2013, Ally Bank earned the top rating in The Pew Charitable Trusts' study "Checks and Balances: Measuring Checking Accounts' Safety and Transparency," a report on the nation's top banks on key consumer protections. The report reviewed the checking accounts offered by 36 of the nation's 50 largest banks according to their practices in three areas: disclosures, overdrafts and dispute resolution. Ally Bank placed top for achieving six out of seven total best practices and nine out of eleven possible good practices, according to the bank.
"We applaud Pew for developing its model disclosure format and challenging the entire industry to improve its disclosure practices," Morais added.