Follow up to the US Banks reaction to ING shows it works.  Produce a better product and people will buy it.  This is not about brand awareness, or any other fuzzy logic – its about simple pure product design.  Incidentally, when I say product, I mean product in the holistic sense.  From a customers perspective, the design of the product, and the design of the channel, ie the delivery mechanism have little to differentiate them.  So this is the holistic offerring I am referring to here.

Finextra: Citi’s Prince hails Web savings success

Citigroup says its new Internet savings account has attracted $3 billion in deposits since its launch in March, with two thirds of that “new money” to the institution, the equivalent of opening 23 new branches.

The Citibank Direct offers customers a 4.75% interest rate, making it one of the highest paying online banking accounts available.

The move was seen as an attempt by Citi to compete with high-yielding online accounts offered in the US by rivals such as ING which currently pays 4.25% interest.

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