GMAC/Ally Retreats in Deposit Battle with ABA

Earlier this week a battle of letters sparked up between GMAC/Ally Bank and the American Bankers Association over what the ABA called GMAC’s “particularly egregious” and too-high deposit rates.

To sum it up, the ABA told the FDIC that since GMAC is in less-than-sound financial shape, it should not be permitted to buy marketshare with high deposit rates. GMAC, not surprisingly, disagreed with the ABA.

Well, it seems that GMAC has retreated somewhat from its battle position. The Bank Deals blog is reporting today that GMAC/Ally has quietly cut its deposit rates. Here’s a table that shows GMAC/Ally’s new pricing:

Will the ABA be satisfied with these rate cuts? Bank Deals says probably not:

I doubt these new rate cuts are low enough to satisfy the American Bankers Association (ABA). They probably would like to see rates as low as the Weekly National Rates and Rate Caps that the FDIC now publishes. That table shows the national average savings account rate of only 0.22%. As I mentioned [previously], the FDIC’s new rules to restrict deposit rates of banks that are not well capitalized won’t go into effect until 2010.

I have no reason to disagree.