My Bank Sold Out Almost All of Its Assets
Posted by Frugal on May 29th, 2007
I have been banking at NetBank for almost 10 years now. I like their service overall. But internet banking is a tough business. NetBank is transferring all the accounts to Everbank, another very good bank. I never got around with opening an account at Everbank for CDs in international currency. But now I guess I don’t need to do anything to get an account at Everbank.
Here is the stock chart of NTBK (NetBank) of about 10 years:
I hope the person who bought at $80 has cut his losses long time ago. The stock chart is kind of telling the story of internet & internet banking. It was very hot initially. But as brick & mortar banks caught up and got into internet banking and free online payment, there is only shrinking business and profit margins for NetBank. The similar thing is happening in various industries, transforming the way businesses are done. For the people who made it earlier and made it big, it can be really big. But for every one of the success stories, there will be hundreds of untold failures.
As for the consumers, there will only be benefits. Increased competitions always resulted in lower price. For banking, it’s better interest rates and less fees. I think similar thing will eventually happen to mortgage and real estate business too. 6% real estate commission will one day be history (if not already). One to three thousand dollars of profit per loan processed will be history too. The “Walmart” in those businesses will eventually take up the majority of the business, and squeeze out mom & pop shops. Instead of resisting changes, a better option may be adopting the changes.
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May 29th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Shanghai is down over 6% as of right now. I’m scared it’ll be a repeat of 2/27 come morning in the US. Didn’t know where else to put this comment.
May 30th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I have been predicting the end of NetBank for over six months now, and I have already withdrawn all of my money. There really isn’t anything substantial left after they sell out the internet banking business. When you read between the lines of the NetBank press release, it seems like they didn’t have much of a choice as they have come under the scrutiny of government regulators.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:46 am
Why withdrawing the money when you can get a free transfer to EverBank? I don’t worry that much, probably because I don’t have that much money at Netbank anyway.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:54 am
Novice,
Sorry for the late reply, but I wasn’t concerned at all and didn’t bother to put out anything. You must have heard the story of “crying wolf”. And you know what happened the first time when that boy lied. Everyone came to rescue (2/27/07). And then came the second and third lies. After the third lie, when the wolves truly arrived, now nobody trusted the boy.
Well, in my opinion, I think this bull market is probably going to LITERALLY do the same thing. I’m losing counts. Was that the second time?
When there is no one alert anymore, that’s when the market will start falling. That’s just my personal opinion. I do think that there is a chance that this drama can extend to October this year.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
I moved my money out of NetBank a long time before EverBank appeared on the scene. Basically NetBank was offering less than 3% interest on money market accounts for existing, long-time customers like myself. I could find other alternatives paying 5% or more, so I moved my funds out.
P.S. I tagged your blog a while ago. Please see the details at my blog.
http://pfstock.blogspot.com/2007/05/obsession-tagged.html