When ING DIRECT first opened its doors, it was with one simple product and one simple desire in mind: to change banking in Canada and lead Canadians back to saving. In the 5,110 days since, we’ve empowered Canadians to save their money safely, with high interest, no minimums and no fees. And because Canadians have asked for it, we’ve even added a few more products along the way to better meet the needs of savers.

We’ve just hit a major milestone; we’ve paid Canadians $5 billion dollars in interest and charged them $0 dollars in fees on their savings.  There aren’t too many banks that can say that.

While we have a lot to be proud of, we also have a lot left to do. You’ll see it in our products and marketing in the months and years to come. Canadians need to become avid savers again.  We want to see more Canadians join The Money Movement so that they get a better handle on their financial well-being and make smarter financial decisions.

Like we’ve been saying for years, saving a few dollars here and there really does add up (even to billions of dollars, it turns out). If you managed to save twenty-five dollars a week compounded over the last 10 years (average interest rate of 2.53%), that discipline would have yielded close to $15,000 today, which is a great start.

Maybe you’re reading this and thinking “small potatoes,” but it’s not when you think about how tough it is to save 10 per cent of your income every month (an ideal amount a lot of people strive for), especially when most banks are still paying insignificant interest rates and charging sky-high service fees. (As an aside, Canadians on average pay $185 in bank fees per year– among the highest in the world.) Think about it.

So, to the clients who’ve chosen to do business with ING DIRECT, thank you. To the dedicated employees who make ING DIRECT what it is and make all this possible, thank you. And to all Canadians, let’s start a money revolution. Let’s get better educated so that financial planning becomes more simple, so that you’re in control of your money, and your decisions aren’t outsourced to people who are incented to sell you stuff, not build a comfortable life for you and your family. We still have a lot of saving and earning left to do, so let’s get to it and show the world what financial autonomy really looks like.