Are big banks feeling pressure from Occupy Wall Street?

Question

And, are you planning to move your banking to a local bank or credit union on Nov. 5th?

By Greg Sargent
For some time now, Occupy Wall Street supporters — as well as those watching the larger debate over inequality and economic justice that’s underway — have been closely watching the banks’ handling of the uproar over fee increases for debit card holders to gauge whether the protests and the changed atmosophere are having an impact.

Today, in a move that the protest’s supporters will undoubtedly claim as a big victory, Bank of America — under fire from consumers — announced that it is nixing its plan to charge $5 a month for purchases with debit cards. Here’s the bank’s statement:

“We have listened to our customers very closely over the last few weeks and recognize their concern with our proposed debit usage fee,” said David Darnell, co-chief operating officer. “Our customers’ voices are most important to us. As a result, we are not currently charging the fee and will not be moving forward with any additional plans to do so.” 
This comes after several other banks nixed similar fees.

So what’s the connection between this and Occupy Wall Street? As David Dayen notes, the anger over the proposed fees, combined with the protests, have led to several companion movements, such as National Bank Transfer day. Dayen speculates that the protests “revitalized a citizen’s movement to take money out of the large Wall Street banks and to put it into community banks or credit unions.”

In terms of today’s news, I just got off the phone with a senior banking official familiar with the discussions about Bank of America’s decision. This official said there was no direct correlation between the protests and the decision, and argued that the move by other banks to back off the fees left BoA no choice. But the official acknowledged that the atmosphere has been changed in a palpable way by the protests and by media coverage of them. Obama and leading Dems have aligned themselves with the shift in public mood by also hammering BoA.

“It’s all connected,” the official said. “There are a lot of issues out there that have added to the conversation. If you take a lot of customer complaints, and you add on to it something along the lines of the protest, it’s amplified the concerns. From our perspective it has clearly amplified things. It has amplified the concerns our customers have. It’s heightened the conversation. It has impacted all the banks.” 

Even if there’s no clear evidence Occupy Wall Street was directly responsible for today’s decision, chalk this up as another potential data point in the way the protests — as well as the resurgence in populism and the intense larger debate over inequality and Wall Street accountability they have spawned — are shifting the overall landscape

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Greetings!

The fear they feel is that the movement has lasted more than a week and now have a major senatorial candidate who at this point looks like she will win the race.
So far, the media and government has tried to ignore the movement allowing local governments and police to handle the protest.
Big mistake.  As you know and have seen, the number of arrests, not deterring the movement has now escalated to violent reactions by the local governments.  Eventually then, like the late sixties and early seventies, there will be a spark, (see Kent State) and full blown rioting in many of the nations cities.  With it will go burning and looting.
Of note the hostile actions then were by a movement called the "weather underground" and they actually bombed a banking entity on Wall St. They were the radical arm of the "SDS" which was students for a democratic society.
So It is a mistake to think by ignoring the problems, they will go away.  It would be wise for the Feds to initiate dialogue as they are playing with fire, with people they have allowed to be victims of the cronyism, that occurs when governments serve the wealthy, at the cost of hurting the less fortunate.  
Remember this, these are not homeless people as a whole. They are educated and well behaved people who are trying to get a message across to a government which has decided to be non responsive to the issue at hand.
What happens next is Iowa, there is where the spark may occur and if so spread throughout the country like wildfire.  If so store owners, would be wise to be prepared to board their windows.

I was there in the sixties so I know.  As an aside think about this.  What is different here and now and what is happening, that we just witnessed in Egypt, Lybia, and ongoing in Syria, and even Greece?
ahh the arrogance of the politician, and those in power.  Yet lest we forget, Napoleon explained his inability to conquer the world by Simply stating, that "empty stomachs have no allegiance"

Good Luck

? · Answer

No

http://biggovernment.com/jjmnolte/2011/10/28/occupywallstreet-the-rap-sheet-so-far/

The Distraction Potential of Certainty · Answer

Only as far as they're having a harder time figuring out whose an actual customer and who they suspect might be a wide-awake former customer eager to close out their account.

I got the whole song and dance routine back in February after I closed my Chase account.

Normally like some people, I ignore notices from banks because it's usually filled with endless legalese that are used to cover their liabilities when they change a policy, this time I decided to read it because Chase had swallowed Wa-mu toxic assets and all for chump change, since Chase was using U.S. taxpayer (TARP) chump change, they couldn't lose since it wasn't their money at risk.

Back in October, (2010) Chase promised to extort, (misappropriate/steal) $10 a month from my account beginning in early Feb 2011 if at any time my balance fell below $500 or my D.D. arrived each month at an amount less than $500.

Basically Chase is saying comply with our unreasonable demands or suffer the loss of up to $240 a year just for the inconvenience of trying to use your own money as you see fit to use it without having $500 of it being held hostage every single day of the year.

Chase representative tried to spin me a tale that "all banks and even credit unions are doing this", I told them I seriously doubt it, but he has a corporate money laundering script to read.

Anonymous · Answer

No.  Banks won't feel pressure because they can be bailed out by the government.  No.  I'm not moving my account.  Its in a small local bank that hasn't been gobbled up yet by the big banking institutions.

blondie · Answer

not at all, banks are feeling heat cause there our hearings that are to start on them

ows is a joke, the only peeps that care are msnbc viewers- and with an audience like that, it means nothing in da real world

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Are big banks feeling pressure from Occupy Wall Street?

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