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Posted on 02/02/2012 9:32:19 AM PST by SmithL
Berkeley is considering closing its Wells Fargo account worth $350 million and entrusting the money to a community bank or credit union, saying the bank is partly to blame for the financial crisis of the last four years.
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to study cutting ties with the bank and rewarding "responsible financial institutions" with its business.
The city manager will return with a report in May on the feasibility of ending the 8-year-old contract, which is up for renewal at the end of this year.
Wells Fargo posted a profit of about $15.9 billion last year. It currently holds about $1 billion worth of deposits from Berkeley customers, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
"Wells Fargo Bank ... was a key part of the subprime lending crisis which led to our overall economic collapse," according to the item before the Council, written by members Darryl Moore and Jesse Arreguin.
During discussion on the issue, Mayor Tom Bates said he closed his personal account with Wells Fargo and moved it to "a community bank." But he cautioned council members that the bank loans lots of money to Berkeley institutions and gives to charity in the city.
"They've funded loans to our teen center, the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, the Ed Roberts Campus," Bates said. "I'm not here to defend their record, but in our hometown they have done some really good things in the past."
(Excerpt) Read more at insidebayarea.com ...
The article doesn't describe any specific misdeeds. What did they do? Expect people to actually make payments on their mortgage?
Only evil banks expect people to pay back the money loaned./s
“and entrusting the money to a community bank or credit union”
Can’t WAIT to see which local Democrat crony gets the payoff for this one....
—What exactly is Wells Fargo accused of doing (or not doing)?—
Being a bank and, therefor, being evil.
Yeah, right. Some local Berkley Marxist politician trying to jockey for a free clock-radio (plus cash) with these idle threats.
Wasn’t Wells Fargo the main one who rejected the TARP money - and then was told they HAD to take it? My son was a customer of theirs at the time and was proud they tried to reject it.
But first on the agenda was to come up with a plan to get Wells Fargo to make a large donation to the school for gay and lesbian reptile studies.
The real question in my mind is: Where did this bunch of civic commies get that much money?
Berkeley or Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo or Berkeley.
I can’t decide which of these two leftist liberal entities I hate more.
A conundrum.
WTF do these imbeciles know about “responsible financial institutions” ?!?!
I wonder how this shining example of Progressive Higher Learning handles deadbeat students who don’t pay their education bills.......
My experience with military credit unions (i.e., Pentagon & Navy Federal) is that they can only accept accounts from real people and not business or other activities. I thought it was pretty standard but perhaps not.
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