Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, who recently told bank employees he is “incensed” about widespread criticism of BofA, probably isn’t a happy man today, either. That’s because the bank had to announce that it is dropping its plan for a monthly debit-card fee.
The bank cited customer gripes and a “changing competitive marketplace” for the change of plans. It’s a “changing competitive marketplace,” all right; another way to phrase that could have been, “Considering the last three years, consumers generally view huge banks as predatory scum,” so it’s probably a good idea for BofA to pull in its horns for awhile.
The announcement that BofA is changing its tune came a day after SunTrust and Regions Bank dropped their own plans for a debit-card fee, and four days after Wells Fargo did the same.
What we’re waiting for now is to find out how BofA will try to make up the money it will lose by ditching the debit-card fee. The fee, of course, was introduced as a way to make up for projected losses from Congress putting new caps on retailers’ debit fees. If past history is any indication, BofA and the other Big Boys of Banking will gouge the dough out of their regular (non-rich) customers one way or another.
Of course, it’s that kind of standard corporate attitude which is causing many Americans to reconsider whether to even deal with mega-banks anymore.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2011.
while I agree that the banks can appear to be hurting the “little guy”, what would happen if these banks actually failed as many would like them to? What would the 240,000 people that work for BofA alone do? Add to the already strained unemployment network? Lose homes? While you bash big banks, there are working people there…just sayin’
They could get jobs doing more respectable things. I know, it’s not the grunt workers fault that these banks have made these awful, harmful decisions. But they are still helping them to slowly destroy this country by working for them. I won’t shed a tear over any bankers getting laid off. Go find a respectable career or live in the streets like all those your employer foreclosed upon (in some cases illegally).
Maybe when everyone moves over to a credit union they can get a job with one of those, and probably have better job security.
Really you don’t feel sorry for anyone that gets laid off from a bank? What about people that have worked at the same place for say 30 years and get laid off while they never made more than $50K a year working there. Or a 35 year old with 2 kids making $35K in a branch? How did he cause the economy to collapse exactly? You mean he is the corporate scum you go after because he took out $40K+ in student loans to go to a public school and get a business degree only to work for $30K a year and hope to one day make $60K? Everyone wasn’t selling Mortgage backed securities that worked at the banks geniuses. The people you talk to in branches had nothing to do with that. The people that do planning in those big shiny buildings you curse that employ over half of your city didn’t either. Most of this was done on trading floors by people that make a lot more money that most of us will ever see. Occupy some common sense and learn about the “real” people that work for these so called villans. Also, look up some numbers on the amount of community donations given to local charities by these companies annually. Yes there are tax benefits but you never make money by giving it away, write that down.
I will repeat: No, I would not feel bad for them. They chose to enter into a shitty line of work and work for a shitty company that is bringing down the economy. Screw them and their jobs.
And give me a break over corporate donations. They do that for write offs and for PR. Handing over a small amount of their ill gotten gains to charity doesn’t move me any more than a killer who occasionally helps a little old lady cross the street.
Not to mention that the clerks at big banks are almost always rude. When you compare them to the clerks at credit unions it’s night and day. Now those people I’d feel sympathy for if they were fired. The rest deserve to be on the unemployment line.