Four years ago a cocky, foreign upstart entered Canada's staid financial services sector and started to tell consumers that it could "Save your money."

Today, ING Direct's no-nonsense approach has enticed more than 400,000 Canadians to its lineup of low-interest mortgages and loan accounts, and higher-interest savings accounts and investment products.

The messages crafted by ING's agency Garneau Wurstlin Philp have stuck to that simple premise with mixed-media campaigns focusing on the benefits of ING's financial products, while pointing out where the big banks fall short.

Just over three years ago, in an even more impudent move, a popular grocery chain extended the equity of its President's Choice brand to its own virtual bank.

PC Financial is a full-service virtual bank that offers its customers no-fee banking and credit card products, and lower-rate mortgages, all accumulating PC points to be used for free groceries. PC Financial must have a recipe for success because it has more than 500,000 customers. Palmer Jarvis DDB handles PC's mass advertising work, while Tattoo Direct + Digital takes care of direct response and the electronic business.

Of the big five banks, only Royal Bank of Canada - while keeping its rates competitive - has not abandoned its "Make the most of your dreams" corporate branding strategy. The others have become much more retail with low-price mortgage offers and higher interest chequing and savings products. The almost unheard of sweepstakes promotions now offered by a few of them are seen to be an attempt to put a friendly face on the bank, although some industry watchers call it a sign of desperation.

Scotiabank is offering cash prizes to customers opening online accounts. It is also coming on strong in the mortgage department with a campaign called "Total Equity Plan Cash Back Offer," which gives customers up to 5% cash back on their mortgages.

CIBC has a sweepstakes underway as part of the promotion of its Waive Account (a low-fee, high transaction chequing account), and its high-interest Premium Growth Account.

TD Canada Trust is offering cash prizes for online customers, in addition to juggling its mortgage and interest rates to stay in line with competitors. Most of its efforts have been around the merger of TD and Canada Trust that began a year ago and should be completed in August. More high profile advertising is expected to follow the full retail integration of the two banks.

At Bank of Montreal, we saw the launch of its first Quebec-only campaign in 10 years this past April. In English Canada it is pushing its Premium Rate Savings Account, and its line of credit products through its MasterCard access card. There is some speculation in the industry that there will be some new and big things from Bank of Montreal in the near future, purely because of its recent appointment of Michael Beckerman, formerly of Nike, Canadian Airlines and MVP.com, as SVP of marketing.