Finance
Metro Detroit is among the top five financial centers in the U.S. having all of the big four accounting firms. The area's major financial service employers include Quicken Loans, Ally Financial, Ford Motor Credit Company, Bank of America, Comerica, PNC Financial Services, Fifth Third Bank, JP Morgan Chase, GE Capital, TD Auto Finance, Deloitte Touche, KPMG, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bakery Tilly, Plante Moran, Robert Half International, and Raymond James.
Financial and investment executives have diverse employment opportunities in metropolitan Detroit. Ally Financial, headquartered at Tower 200 of the Renaissance Center, is among the largest holders of mortgages in the United States. Detroit based Quicken Loans is the fifth largest retail home mortgage lender in the U.S. and the largest online. The metropolitan area has a range of venture capital firms which finance business start-ups and acquisitions. The area's real estate investment trusts (REITs) which include Taubman Centers are an important part of the investment community which owns and operates many major shopping malls across the U.S. Pulte Homes, one of the largest home builders in the U.S. has its own mortgage company. As another example, General Motors invests its $85 B pension trust. Detroit's historic Penobscot Building in the downtown financial district is in the heart of the city's wireless Internet zone and fiber-optic network.
Fifth Third Bank which maintains its regional headquarters at tower 1000 of the Southfield Town Center announced a $100 M expansion in the Metro Detroit area in order to take market share from Dallas based rival Comerica which also maintains a large presence in Michigan. Fifth Third announced it would create 350 new jobs in the area and open 30 to 40 new branches.
In 2009, Quicken Loans more than doubled its mortgage volume from the previous year to $25 B, experiencing significant growth in market share. In 2010, Quicken began a new division within the company to provide mortgage services to community banks nationwide. In 2011, Quicken Loans relocated its headquarters to downtown Detroit, consolidating about 4,000 of its suburban employees in a move considered to be a high importance to city planners to reestablish the historic downtown. In 2011, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan consolidated 6,000 of its employees in downtown Detroit, relocating 3,000 to Tower 500 and 600 of the Renaissance Center from Southfield.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Metropolitan Detroit
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