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Landmark Responsible Banking Act vote is TODAY
As a huge trading loss at JPMorgan Chase intensifies criticism of the nation’s big banks, the New York City Council plans to vote on Tuesday to require banks to make public their efforts to be socially responsible before the city decides where to deposit the billions of dollars it keeps in banks.
The city currently deposits money at 31 banks — among them JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Wells Fargo — chosen for their financial soundness and ratings by federal and state agencies.
But leaders of the Council say those criteria are no longer enough. As the Occupy Wall Street movement focuses attention on the role of banks in the financial crisis, and the JPMorgan loss prompts calls for increased regulation, council members want the city to begin weighing the services banks offer in poor neighborhoods when determining which ones to do business with.
Cleveland and Philadelphia have had laws in place for over a decade similar to the one being proposed in New York, and now the financial crisis has led several other cities to consider them. Pittsburgh recently passed a bill that requires banks that want city deposits to submit community reinvestment plans every two years. Los Angeles, Boston, and San Diego are all considering similar measures.
Read the rest of the article here Results of vote will be posted on this webpage. For details contact Benjamin.d@anhd.org.