Interesting Move Your Money news bits ..

Mass. Treasurer Pitches Move Your Money Program

State Treasurer Steve Grossman has proposed moving up to $100 million for deposit into local community banks, with the caveat that they must in turn loan out the money to the state’s small businesses. The idea is that by giving loans to small businesses, the local economy will grow, thus creating more jobs and speeding up the economic recovery. According to state data, small businesses make up for 85 percent of the state’s businesses. Already, 24 banks have agreed to join in, and more are expected to follow. Read the full story here.
Campaign Via Social Media Blocks Dutch Bankers Pay 

ING customers in Amsterdam became furious over executive bonuses and mobilized on Twitter and other social networks, threatening to remove deposits from the bank that received a taxpayer bailout that it has yet to repay. That reaction was so incendiary that ING’s chief executive Jan Hommen agreed to forego his bonus and encouraged other ING directors to do so as well. Now the Dutch parliament has voted for a 100% retroactive tax on bonuses paid to executives at financial institutions who have yet to pay back their bailout loans. The finance minister must approve the parliament’s proposal in order for it to be implemented.

Goldman Sachs CEO Could Face Criminal Prosecution

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein could face criminal prosecution for his role in deceiving clients into buying securities he knew were worthless, as well as misleading Congress. Senator Carl Levin has announced that he will recommend Goldman executives who testified before his panel including Blankfein to be referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. Senator Levin’s announcement comes after a two-year investigation on the causes of the financial crisis. Members of the investigative panel must deliberate Levin’s proposal before the referral can be made.

Report On Rating Agencies Caving To Banks

A two-year government investigation has concluded that the major credit rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Ratings, knowingly mislead investors by artificially inflating their ratings for mortgage-backed securities that ended up being worth significantly less. The report points to the rating agencies financial conflict of interest as the cause for their misconduct and argues that the rating agencies fallacious ratings contributed to the housing bubble and the resulting financial crisis.

Read the report here.

Federal Regulators Issue Weak Settlement Against Big Banks

Following the robo-signer scandal where mortgage firms hired people to sign thousands of foreclosure documents a day without verifying or even reading them, the three federal bank regulators – the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the Federal Reserve and the Office of Thrift Supervision announced a settlement last week that demands the banks stop such practices and fix their foreclosure process. Yet the regulators have left it up to the banks to decide what actions they need to take and how to implement the new procedures. The three regulators also announced that fines would be imposed but have yet to announce how much the banks will be subject to. While the settlement appears to be a step in the right direction, many have criticized the settlement for being very weak and an attempt to undercut the 50 State Attorneys General investigations that are expected to impose a stricter settlement on the mortgage firms.

Read Joe Nocera’s great op-ed on the OCC settlement.

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Action Report

Around the country, Americans are speaking out against Wall Street banks and the havoc they have created. Below are a few groups that are fed up and taking action. Find out how you can help below:

Make Wall Street Pay

Last week, 150 people in the Chicago area protested outside a Bank of America for dodging $3.8 billion in taxes last year. Rather than pay taxes, Bank of America received a $666 million tax rebate. The group then marched to Senator Mark Kirk’s office and demanded that he take a stand against banks and corporations. Senator Kirk received $2 million in campaign contributions from the financial industry.

Showdown in Ohio

Main Street will meet Wall Street, as thousands of people from local and national grassroots organizations will travel to Columbus, OH, from May 16 to 17 for two days of direct action against JP Morgan Chase at their annual shareholder meeting. The showdown is being organized by National People’s Action and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. Click here to learn more about the event and how you can get involved!

Fordham for the Bronx

Fordham for the Bronx, a small student group at Fordham University created a proposal to move 0.5% to 1% of the Operating Account to be moved out of Wall Street banks and reinvested in either Bethel Federal Credit Union or the Amalgamated Bank. With the help of the Responsible Endowments Coalition, the student group successfully convinced the Student Government to unanimously support their proposal. On March 7^th, the students submitted their proposal to the Chief Financial Officer and the Director of Treasury Operations and received an overwhelmingly positive response. The students hope that if their campaign is successfully implemented, they will be able to push for more money to be moved into local banks in the future.

Want advice on submitting a proposal at your own University? Click here.