Diane Morais says that what's good for customers is ultimately good for business. With that philosophy in mind, she helped Ally permanently cancel both overdraft and mortgage origination fees last year. That decision, as well as low interest rates and a hot housing market, helped the digital-only Ally originate $10.4 billion in loans in 2021.
For Morais, who is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the end of overdraft fees represents a shift in the industry — one she catalyzed — toward showing customers what they're spending money on and explaining how it's worth paying for: "How do we create a fair value exchange for consumers? People are willing to pay for things they see value in if it's transparent."
The focus dates back to Morais's prior role heading customer experience at Bank of America, where she worked for a dozen years before joining Ally in 2008. "We're in the room and the customer has a chair," she said. For every decision, Ally tries to ask: "Is that in keeping with our brand? How will that impact our customers?"
The fee cancellations were good for overall business, too. In 2021 Morais was in charge of $182 billion of client assets, including retail deposits worth approximately $135 billion, and relationships with 3.8 million customers across Ally's deposits, brokerage, mortgage, credit card and point-of-sale products. Multiproduct relationships grew for the fifth consecutive year, ending at more than 9%, and 69% of deposit account openings in 2021 were from the millennial and younger generation.
Morais's decisions to remove fees reflects her belief in financial innovation, financial education, economic development and mobility, affordable housing and the advancement of women. Her efforts in this area include establishing the Ally Charitable Foundation in 2020; the foundation has now invested about $80 million in programs that work to provide affordable housing, financial literacy, workforce development and other opportunities to people in low- and moderate-income communities.
Morais cares about building an inclusive community at work, too. She leads a team of 2,127 direct and indirect reports. Fifty-seven percent of these people are female; 52% are people of color. Customers have also benefited from her commitment to low-to-moderate-income communities. Under her leadership, the bank's Community Reinvestment Act program has secured "outstanding" ratings for its innovative lending and investments to support affordable housing and economic mobility.
