Banks

Native American Women Going After Europe’s Banks To Divest From Oil

October 24, 2017 Shannan Stoll, www.nationofchange.org Resist! Banks, Divestment, Europe, Indigenous Women, Oil & Gas

By Shannan Stoll for The Nation - Last December, calls to defund the Dakota Access pipeline and “Stand with Standing Rock” led individuals to divest millions of dollars from banks extending credit to that project. As cities and tribes got involved, that amount increased to now more than $4 billion. Seattle was the first, then more cities followed, and the movement to defund Big Oil is still growing. In May, Indigenous leaders launched a new campaign, the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, targeting four proposed tar sands pipelines. The strategy is to stop banks’ financial commitment before ground is broken. One of these projects – TransCanada’s Energy East Pipeline – was terminated earlier this month. Now, the movement that began at Standing Rock has gone global, since much of the DAPL funding came from overseas banks. Some European banks such as BNP Paribas have taken steps to stop funding fossil fuel projects that trample Native peoples’ rights. Others such as Norway’s DNB and ING have done some divesting. Last week, a delegation of Indigenous women returned from a trip to Europe where they met with leaders of financial institutions in Norway, Switzerland, and Germany, the “home bases for several of the world’s largest financial and insurance institutions supporting dangerous extraction developments,” according to the delegation’s news release.

Divest The Globe, Invest In The Future

October 22, 2017 Staff, www.mazaskatalks.org Resist! #NoDAPL, Banks, Divest, Oil & Gas, Pipelines

By Mazaska Talks. On October 23rd, ninety-two of the world's largest banks will meet in São Paolo, Brazil to discuss policies on the climate and Indigenous People's rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). These banks include Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) financiers such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and many more. Mazaska Talks is calling on indigenous people and allies everywhere to join us for 3 days of mass global action that make it clear to the banks: Financing climate disaster and the abuse of Indigenous Peoples will result in a massive global divestment movement.

Catalans Are Protesting Against Banks That Have Moved Their HQ

October 21, 2017 James Bissell, www.thenational.scot Resist! Banks, Catalonia, Protests

By James Bissell for The Nation - Bank customers in Catalonia are withdrawing symbolic amounts of money from financial institutions that have moved their official headquarters to other locations in Spain amid a political crisis over the region's independence bid. Pro-independence umbrella group Crida Democracia called on consumers late on Thursday to put pressure on banks that made the decision. By Friday morning, dozens of people were lining up at a CaixaBank branch in central Barcelona, most of them withdrawing 150 or 160 euros from ATMs. The amounts were closest to 155, in reference to the Spanish constitutional article with which the central government plans to revoke some of Catalonia's autonomous powers to prevent regional politicians from pushing ahead with secession. CaixaBank and Banco Sabadell, the largest Catalan lenders, are among hundreds of financial institutions and businesses that have moved their official registration out of Catalonia. "These banks are traitors," said Oriol Mauri, 35, owner of a children's game business in central Barcelona. "They need to see that it's lots of us who are angry." Mauri, who withdrew 150 euros because the ATM would not allow him to take out 155, said he was not worried about businesses fleeing Catalonia. "I'm not afraid of economic repercussions," he said. "Our power as consumers is perhaps the only way to influence and have our voice heard in Europe."

BNP To Halt Shale Oil Financing, Expand Funds For Renewables

October 18, 2017 Fabio Benedetti Valentini and Russell Ward, www.bloomberg.com Educate! Banks, New Economy, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy

By Fabio Benedetti Valentini and Russell Ward for Bloomberg - BNP Paribas SA pledged to stop financing shale and oil sands projects, expanding earlier commitments in support of global efforts to tackle climate change. France’s largest bank will no longer do business with companies whose main activity stems from oil and natural gas obtained from shale or oil sands, it said in a statementWednesday. The policy covers companies involved in activities ranging from exploration to marketing and trading. The company also won’t fund oil or gas projects in the Arctic region. BNP Paribas said it’s committed to bringing its financing and investment activities in line with international efforts to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Achieving that goal relies on reducing the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, starting with energy from shale and oil sands, the bank said. Echoing environmentalists on a disputed subject, the bank said the extraction of fuel from these sources emits high levels of greenhouse gases and harms the environment in other ways. BNP Paribas may be the first large bank to blacklist shale oil, which has enabled the U.S. to curb oil imports and pushed down energy prices. The lender’s financing for tar sands, Arctic oil and other carbon-intensive fuels totaled $1.94 billion last year, ranking it 17th among international banks, according to a report by the Rainforest Action Network and other environmental groups. That’s down from $3.74 billion in 2014.

Branch’s Closure Sparks Battle Against “Banking Deserts” In Baltimore

October 17, 2017 Fern Shen, www.baltimorebrew.com Resist! Baltimore, Banks

By Fern Shen for Baltimore Brew - There’s not much left of the Bank of America branch that closed at Reisterstown Road Plaza last month, just two still-working ATMs outside the building. Banks are shuttering brick-and-mortar branches across the country as the industry moves online and, looked at that way, 6538 Reisterstown Road in Northwest Baltimore is just one more of them. And yet on a recent afternoon, a long line of people were waiting to use these ATMs – a line that grew longer when one of the machines quit working. Interviewed as they stood on the sidewalk, customers complained that they missed being able to sit at a desk or stand at the counter and talk to a human being. “I would come here to handle my business – not just getting cash – and now they’ve made it complicated and inconvenient,” said Vanessa Palmer, 61, who lives minutes away and said she’s been coming to this bank branch for many years. “You’re outside with all that money,” said Carlotta Taylor, 72, raising the issue that many customers do not feel safe at an open-air ATM. “What happened – they’re closed?” a woman said, rattling the locked door and peering inside. Advocates say the residents of less affluent communities – often lacking Internet access or smart phones or fearful of banking online – still need local bank branches.

Stand With Puerto Rico — Not The Banks

September 29, 2017 Wenonah Hauter, www.foodandwaterwatch.org Resist! Banks, Hurricane, Natural Disasters, Puerto Rico

By Wenonah Hauter for Food and Water Watch - It’s been one week since Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, and nearly half of Puerto Ricans now lack access to safe drinking water and much of the island is still without power. This is a calamity that means lives are still at risk today, long after the disaster itself. Hospitals there are running off of generators, and fuel to power them is running out. Puerto Rico needs immediate humanitarian assistance before many more lives are lost thanks to America’s latest climate catastrophe, and reconstruction aid to help them rebuild their infrastructure. The hurricane only made a bad situation much, much worse: Puerto Rico has been reeling from austerity measures for years that were put in place by Wall Street, which has been calling to recoup the debt. One of Donald Trump’s first responses to the mounting humanitarian crisis was to remind people of the “billions of dollars” the territory owes to the bank, “which must be dealt with” – signaling what the priorities will be. Given the role the banks have played in guiding our decision makers to put profits before people, it’s not surprising. For the past 100 years, Wall Street and the massive corporations they back have guided policy on everything from energy to agriculture, with disastrous effects for our food and water. It has come with toxic pollution, higher prices for consumers, massive wealth inequality and a warming planet.

Santa Barbara Votes To Divest From Banks Funding Dakota Access Pipeline

September 25, 2017 Grace Feldmann and Emiliano Campobello, www.lastrealindians.com Resist! Banks, Dakota Access Pipeline, Divestment, Pipelines

By Grace Feldmann and Emiliano Campobello for Last Real Indians - SANTA BARBARA, California / village of Syuxtun—9/19/17, Santa Barbara City Council voted to proceed toward divesting over $40 million from banks funding the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) starting with divestment of $6.25 million. This includes the early sale of $2.25 million in investments with Wells Fargo & Goldman Sachs. Also, a $4 million note with Union Bank is maturing and will be reinvested according to ethical investment goals, to the extent that such investments achieve “substantially equivalent safety, liquidity and yield” compared to traditional investments. These decisions come after a year of public pressure by the Santa Barbara Standing Rock Coalition (SBSRC), Chumash tribes, and allied groups. The City Council decided it is in the city’s best interest to encourage social responsibility goals rather than align with companies that disrespect indigenous treaties, commit human rights abuses, and destroy the environment. The policy specifically discourages investments in entities that “manufacture, distribute or provide financing to industries such as tobacco products, weapons, military systems, nuclear power, and fossil fuels,” and encourages companies that “support community well being through safe, environmentally sound practices, and fair labor practices.”

How Capitalist Central Banks Have Been Creating The Next Financial Crisis

August 17, 2017 Jack Rasmus, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Banking and Finance, Banks, Capitalism, Crisis, New Economy

By Jack Rasmus for Counter Punch - As central bankers, finance ministers, and government policy makers head off to their annual gathering at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this August, 24-26, 2017, the key topic is whether the leading central banks in North America and Europe will continue to raise interest rates this year; another topic high on the agenda is when the three major central banks – the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England – might begin to sell off their combined $9.8 trillion dollar balance sheets that they accumulated since the 2008-09 banking crisis. But the more fundamental question – little discussed by central bankers and academics alike – is what are the likely effects of further immediate rate hikes and/or commencement of central banks’ balance sheet reductions? The assumption is further rate hikes and sell-offs will have little negative impact on the real economy or financial markets. But will they? The effects of hikes and sell off will prove the opposite of what they predict. Central banks in the US and Europe were grossly in error predicting in 2008 that massive liquidity injections and zero interest rates would re-stimulate their economies and return them to pre-crisis real GDP growth rates.

Federal Bank Regulator Drops A Bombshell As Corporate Media Snoozes

August 14, 2017 Pam Martens and Russ Martens, www.wallstreetonparade.com Educate! Banks, Corporate Media, New Economy, Regulation

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens for Wall Street On Parade - Last Monday, Thomas Hoenig, the Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), sent a stunning letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. The letter contained information that should have become front page news at every business wire service and the leading business newspapers. But with the exception of Reuters, major corporate media like the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, the Business section of the New York Times and Washington Post ignored the bombshell story, according to our search at Google News. What the fearless Hoenig told the Senate Banking Committee was effectively this: the biggest Wall Street banks have been lying to the American people that overly stringent capital rules by their regulators are constraining their ability to lend to consumers and businesses. What’s really behind their inability to make more loans is the documented fact that the 10 largest banks in the country “will distribute, in aggregate, 99 percent of their net income on an annualized basis,” by paying out dividends to shareholders and buying back excessive amounts of their own stock.

Wells Fargo’s Lyin’ Cheatin’ Ways: A Sociopathic Institution

August 14, 2017 Lainey Hashorva, www.occupy.com Create! Banks, Capitalism, New Economy, Wells Fargo

By Lainey Hashorva for Occupy - Are you facing serial cheating, abuse, lies, ongoing stress about money, issues of fidelity, questions about your future and are at a loss as to where to turn? Do you often feel angry, taken advantage of, less than, a voiceless victim? Did you put your trust and your nest egg, your faith and your money on someone or something that took you for all you’re worth, jilted your faith in the institution and robbed you blind? Deep down, do you think you may be going steady with a good looking grifter? I hate to tell you this, but you may be banking with a sociopath. That’s right. That harmless tall handsome stone wall that promises you the world, smiles at you shamelessly through bulletproof glass and marble floors, black suits and lollipops, is a sociopathic lover out to take all that you hold dear. All that you’ve put your faith, and money, into. This is not fifty shades of gray. It is now clearly black and white. Do you still bank with Wells Fargo? Can we talk? Maybe you have a thing for bad boys? Fast talking flashy – “Here’s a new credit card, baby,” Scaramucci-style pinky ring?

Move Your Money To The New Economy

June 22, 2017 Staff, www.neweconomy.net Create! Banks, Money, New Economy

By Staff of New Economy Coalition - Banking Alternatives: Unlike Wall St. banks, which work to maximize profits for shareholders at the expense of communities and the environment, Community Development Credit Unions, as well as many other progressive credit unions, CDFIs, and community banks, offer a local alternative rooted in the well-being of their communities. Here are some places to learn more about values-aligned banking alternatives. Invest In the New Economy: Within NEC’s membership there are dozens of amazing organizations that can help you put your savings or investments to use in building the New Economy. Here are just a few. Reinvest in Our Power: Reinvest In Our Power is an emerging national network of reinvestment campaigns and grassroots organizations, that are working together to freeze dirty investments, move the money, and resource community-led solutions at the frontlines. Through a financial cooperative of regional loan funds, governed by the grassroots organizations, this project shifts both capital and decision-making out of corporate control, and puts it in service of people and the planet. Sachie, NEC staff organizer, serves as project coordinator for the network.

Entire Cities Are Cutting Ties With Wells Fargo For Its Support Of Dakota Pipeline

June 14, 2017 Ilana Novick, www.alternet.org Resist! Banks, Dakota Pipeline, Divestment, Wells Fargo

By Ilana Novick for AlterNet - Conservatives have long had a monopoly on the love of states' rights and local government, but in Trump's America, it's the left that has seized the opportunities of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called "laboratories of democracy." Even as the Dakota Access Pipeline inches toward completion, multiple cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Albuquerque, Raleigh, and Philadelphia have spoken with their wallets, severing ties with the oil pipeline-funding banks—in particular, Wells Fargo. On May 31, New York City became the latest city to join the effort, when Mayor Bill de Blasio and comptroller Scott Stringer announced that they will vote to stop New York City from entering into new contracts with Wells Fargo and strip the bank of its role as book-running manager for NYC's General Obligation and Transitional Finance Authority bond sales. Seattle was at the forefront of the movement back in February, when a coalition of activists convinced the city council to pass an ordinance that, as the Nation explained, "would effectively bar the local government from doing business with or investing in Wells Fargo in the future.

Left-Right Alliance To Break Up The Banks

June 13, 2017 Staff, www.accuracy.org Create! Banks, New Economy

By Staff of IPA - “Then legislators, lobbyists, bankers, and regulators started to chisel away at the wall separating those two kinds of banks. By November 1999, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act totally. The abusive marriages of gamblers and savers could once again be consummated. And who doesn’t remember the result: the financial crisis of 2007-2008 that led to taxpayer-funded bailouts, subsidies, loans, and sweetheart fraud-settlement deals. … “Under President Obama, the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law. The Act sought to limit the ability of big banks to trade the riskiest types of securities. Through inclusion of something called the ‘Volcker Rule,’ Dodd-Frank prohibited the trading of securities (even if with many loopholes). What it didn’t do was actually break up the big banks again. That meant another 1933 still awaited its moment. “Then along came the bizarre 2016 presidential election campaign during which, strangely enough, Democrats and Republicans found one issue on which they had some common ground: the banking system.

U.S. Bank Becomes First Major Bank To Stop Financing Pipeline Construction

May 27, 2017 Staff of 350.org, www.ecowatch.com Create! Banks, Divestment, Pipelines

By Staff of 350.org for Eco Watch - U.S. Bank has become the first major bank in the U.S. to formally exclude gas and oil pipelines from their project financing. This groundbreaking change to their Environmental Responsibility Policy was publicly announced at the annual shareholders meeting in Nashville in April. In addition to no longer providing "project financing for the construction of oil or natural gas pipelines," the bank has stated that relationships with their clients in the oil and gas industries will be subject to "enhanced due diligence processes." As recently as March 2017, U.S. Bank has renewed commitments with Energy Transfer Partners, the company constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline, and with Enbridge Energy, whose pipelines operate within Minnesota. However, advocates are hopeful that the bank's newly released policy will limit other kinds of financing relationships with these industries. "U.S. Bank's new policy is an important step in protecting the environment and moving towards a fossil free future," said Wichahpi Otto, a volunteer with the climate justice group MN350, who travelled to Nashville for the shareholders meeting.

Top 25 U.S. Banks Have 222 Trillion Dollars Of Exposure To Derivatives

May 19, 2017 Michael Snyder, www.theeconomiccollapseblog.com Educate! Banks, Derivatives

By Michael Snyder for The Economic Collapse - The recklessness of the “too big to fail” banks almost doomed them the last time around, but apparently they still haven’t learned from their past mistakes. Today, the top 25 U.S. banks have 222 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. In other words, the exposure that these banks have to derivatives contracts is approximately equivalent to the gross domestic product of the United States times twelve. As long as stock prices continue to rise and the U.S. economy stays fairly stable, these extremely risky financial weapons of mass destruction will probably not take down our entire financial system. But someday another major crisis will inevitably happen, and when that day arrives the devastation that these financial instruments will cause will be absolutely unprecedented. During the great financial crisis of 2008, derivatives played a starring role, and U.S. taxpayers were forced to step in and bail out companies such as AIG that were on the verge of collapse because the risks that they took were just too great. But now it is happening again, and nobody is really talking very much about it. In a desperate search for higher profits, all of the “too big to fail” banks are gambling like crazy, and at some point a lot of these bets are going to go really bad.

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