Senior Director, Product & Strategy
Sonia Fraher started at Ally—then known as GMAC Bank, the financing division of General Motors—as an intern in July 2005.
Over the next 16 years, she held various roles in technology, digital and deposits. In March 2021, Fraher was promoted to senior director of product and strategy and is responsible for developing new ideas to encourage clients to save and invest. “I’m always thinking about what we are doing to evolve our pipeline of products over the next three years,” she said.
Fraher says one of things that has kept her at Ally Financial over the years — she was hired immediately after she graduated from Penn State — is the bank’s core philosophy: “We believe that what’s good for the customer is good for the bank. And that culture permeates from the top down.”
During the pandemic, while some lenders offered temporary relief measures for mortgages or other loans, few were willing to pause overdraft fees. Ally was the only bank to voluntarily halt overdraft fees for 120 days without requiring its customers to request it.
Fraher, who leads the bank’s consumer financial and social inclusion efforts, took a deep dive into the data collected by the bank during the overdraft fee pause. “We had this great dataset because of the COVID overdraft fee relief. It gave us insight into customer reaction, and helped us understand what the data meant from a behavioral perspective,” Fraher said.
Not surprisingly, the research showed the overdraft fees are a source of confusion and stress for many consumers, and the fees disproportionately affect Black and Brown communities. “Overdraft is a uniquely emotional experience for people. When people get stuck in the draft of multiple overdrafts, it is very stressful and anxiety-producing,” she said.
According to Fraher, it took little to no convincing to adopt a permanent no overdraft fees policy. “Diane Morais" — president, consumer and commercial banking — "was very active in this process,” Fraher said. “And tremendous credit needs to be given for leadership’s support.” Ally made the no-overdraft-fee policy permanent for all customers in June 2021.
In 2021, Fraher also led the development and launch of smart savings tools, the largest customer-facing launch for the bank at that time. Since most Americans don’t have $400 tucked away for an emergency, Fraher wanted to find a way to make saving money fun and painless. She helped develop and deploy a savings tool called “Buckets and Boosters.” The buckets are essential digital envelopes and can be named according to the individual’s goal. Some common bucket names include “saving to move out of my parent’s house” and “saving for tattoos.” The tool has been adopted by 40% of new customers, Fraher said. “They are saving twice as much as the people who don’t use the tool.”
Unlike most employees who’ve had to readjust to remote work, Fraher has always been in Philadelphia, while the majority of her colleagues are in Charlotte, North Carolina, which she visits frequently. Closer to home, she volunteers once a month at a community food bank, and is raising a daughter. “She’s 4 and a half. It’s exciting and challenging. And lends an element of surprise,” Fraher said.
