According to Arkadi Kuhlmann, CEO and President of ING Direct and author of The Orange Code: How ING Direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause, “credit cards are the opium of consumerism… it can be very difficult to manage a credit card well.” Are the credit card companies like drug pushers? Listen to his opinions on today’s current economy, what consumers and parents can do to prepare for an uncertain future, and how his wisdom has made ING Direct a successful business model that still works today!
Arkadi’s interview airs live tonight on Living Large on a Small Budget with Linsey Knerl at 8pm CST on Blog Talk Radio. His unique perspective addresses issues in a fresh light. Topics include:
Arkadi has been featured in TIME Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and Fast Company (among others.) You can learn more about ING at www.ingdirect.com and in his book The Orange Code. Listen live tonight and call in to hear the winners of our Trivia contest, too!
I was lucky enough to interview at IngDirect when they were still a quite young entity here in the US. This was in their treasury department and the people were frankly, brilliant, and I respect them even more as they didn't hire me, Haha!
What is interesting to note, they were interviewing me because of my experience within the mortgage backed securities market, and at the time were getting more heavily into that area, and ING, as far as I can tell has not needed to take a big write down Of course that was 5 years ago, so they might have stopped buying whole loans as they made their own loans with their own underwriting critera.
What is also interesting, IngDirect was started in Canada first, with its notoriously strict banking regulations.