Ameriprise Financial Inc. has opened a banking unit to offer clients mortgages and home-equity loans. Ameriprise Bank FSB will provide loans through the brokerage’s 10,000 financial advisers and offer bank accounts through a Web site, the company said Monday. Minneapolis-based Ameriprise had delivered banking services over the telephone and online through parent American Express Co. until its September 2005 spinoff.
Brokerages such as Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc.’s Smith Barney unit have turned to banking and lending to win a bigger share of the market catering to their clients’ financial-service needs.
“Financial advisers know both sides of a client’s balance sheet,” said Joe Sweeney, Ameriprise’s president of financial planning, products and services.
Ameriprise Bank, a savings and loan, is regulated by the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision. The lender, based in New York with offices in Minneapolis and Phoenix, has about has about $1.1 billion in assets. By November, American Express will transfer $1.1 billion in deposits and $575 million in loans to Ameriprise.
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