Power Breakfast: Banking, health care, GM, water, jobs

Two interesting bank stories appear today — one of poor regulation and the other of some marketing ingenuity.

AJC reporter Paul Donsky writes that federal regulators knew a small McDonough bank, FirstBank Financial Services, was growing too fast and taking on too much housing risk years before it failed.

But regulators took no action until the bank was in a free fall and it was too late.

In another outgrowth of the recession, Donsky writes that an increasing number of banks are looking to cut their advertising and marketing budgets in a self-reliant way.

Atlanta ad man Neal Reynolds has created a Web-based platform that offers an inexpensive way for banks to create their own ads and other marketing material. Business on the 5-year-old site, bankmarketingcenter.com, has doubled over the past six months, he says.

About 80 lenders, most of them small, community-based banks, are now signed up to use the service. Customers pay monthly fees based on their size, starting at about $300 a month.

But Donsky writes that many banks, particularly the larger ones, may need more distinctive and powerful ads to promote their offerings in a very crowded field.

Also in the AJC:

• Atlanta weighs Dawson County reservoir proposal
• Belgian firm bringing jobs to battered Dalton
• Georgians travel to D.C. for protest against government spending
• DeKalb nightclub must close

In other media:

• GM to offer money-back guarantee
• Small investors cautiously edge back into stocks
• Geithner says bailout programs are shrinking
• Democrats promise action on health bill this fall