Rev. Dennis Dillon is calling for the Black community to close its accounts and remove its money from Bank of America. On Monday, September 8th, Rev. Dillon and the Move Our Money Coalition will lead a group of Black people from around the city to a Bank of America (BOA) branch for the purpose of closing their BOA accounts. Rev. Dennis Dillon is the pastor of the Brooklyn Christian Center and author of the annual Economic State of Black New York Report.
OTB: Talking about the Black community's relationship with banks – are we underserved?
Dillon: I am not sure I would say we are underserved. I think from a retail, purely consumer vantage point, the Black community is well served by banking institutions. Meaning, their access to branches, access for opportunities to make deposits and to make withdrawals, and to do what we call conventional brick and mortar, day-to-day business of banking. The point that I am making is, unfortunately, these banking institutions, while they are benefiting from the millions and millions of dollars in annual deposits from our community, they are not reciprocating by making loans. I am unapologetic about saying that they are not making loans. When you measure the loans against the deposits they are making, they are not making loans.
OTB: What in particular made you choose Bank of America (BOA)?
Dillon: All of the banking institutions that are non-responsive and are raking billions from our community and are really, truly raping our community economically, need to be targeted and need to be brought to task. BOA leads the way in this. BOA is not only the largest financial operation in the U.S., but BOA, historically, is an institution that does a lot of business with the business community nationally. They do very little business with the Black business community. BOA has been the trendsetter. BOA founded the entire movement around retail banking. They started branch banking. BOA started the credit card business. So clearly, BOA is a leader and trendsetter. I think it is important to bring the leader to task. And to let the leader know that other than following the path you set, there needs to be new direction, particularly as it relates to the Black community. BOA has a terrible record. There are clearly acts of discrimination in our community. We see that in the lawsuits where they discriminate against their employees.* Not to mention the redlining and the greenlining that is taking place in our community.
OTB: If you get a groundswell of people who would take their money out of BOA, are you recommending any other type of institution, whether it be a savings and loan or commercial institution?
Dillon: As we educate our community, some of this information should be shared with our community. Our community is constantly putting our money in commercial banks. It has to stop. It is almost always the Black consumers who are putting their consumer deposits in commercial banks. Commercial banks are designed for commercial enterprises. We are saying to our community as we are taking our money out of BOA, as we are taking our money out of commercial banks, we really need to begin to look for credit unions, savings and loan institutions and other kinds of banking institutions to deposit our consumer dollars. This desire for having the permanent 24/ 7 access to our money is really part of the problem. So we are looking for the bank with the most branches while others in their communities are going to the savings and loans, the Bay Ridge Savings and Loan, and some of the other institutions. We are going to the BOA's and the Chase's, the Citibank's, to put our consumer deposits.
If I were to specifically make recommendations, we are saying that banking institutions like Carver Federal Savings and Loan Association ought to be the kind of institution that we pay more attention to. Given the challenges that dwell within these institutions, we have to work collectively to overcome it. There is no question. If we have to go to commercial and other banking institutions, we recommend the banks that are most sensitive and most responsive to our communities. We would suggest [banks] that are pretty strong in giving SBA loans back to our community. I recommend that we look at banks like Banco Popular, look at banks like Amalgamated, and if we have to go to the larger institutions, then we look at those that are most responsive and sensitive to our community. And those who really have ties to our community because they are doing things with various groups in the community, and direct our deposits to those institutions.
OTB: Besides looking at our individual accounts, whether savings or checking, what do you think the Black community should do as far as looking at how banking institutions are regulated on the federal level? Carver, because of its conservatism, survived the savings and loan debacle, and the Keating Five. Black people did not pay attention, except when Freedom National Bank went under. Do you think of Black people, at a minimum, should monitor federal regulation of banking institutions? There is agitation across the country for changing of credit card rules, etc. We are not in the conversations that loosened the regulations of banking institutions, making it more attractive to take money out of savings and loans and put it in commercial banks.
Dillon: I think that is an excellent point. I think that our community really needs to be vigilant of the overall financial industry. The one thing that we know is when banks are regulated, and when the regulators are enacting those regulations, for the most part, our community benefits. One of the regulations that have been set up by the government is called CRA, Community Reinvestment Act. And as far as possible, if we keep the pressure on, and ensure that these regulations are enacted, we see how it benefits our community. Clearly, the CRA initiative has been effective and served our community well. Basically, much of what we got, we would not have had, had it not been for the CRA. It is very important for organizations that are serious about serving our communities in the financial area to be vigilant about how we monitor the process. The only time we really see a shift by the major banking institutions to be responsive and sensitive to our community is when they know some people out there are watching. I can speak from experience. I have seen what Chase and Chemical have done in stepping forward to make some changes and do some things differently in our community based on the pressure that is put on them. We have seen other banks rally around. The Black press should be speaking to these issues, elected officials should be speaking to these issues, community organizations and clergy leadership should be speaking to these issues, because if we are not speaking to these issues, trust me, slowly but surely, not only do we get passed by, but they are going to run us over in the process and do what they want to do.
OTB: On September 8th, you are having the community action. What do you want people to do?
Dillon: We are calling on our community to seriously move your money from Bank of America. It is important that a strong message be sent to the financial community and BOA, in particular. The Black community can no longer sit by and deposit all of this money in banking institutions and then not have access to our money. BOA has to start advertising in Our Time Press, the NY Christian Times, the Amsterdam News, the Carib News, the Daily Challenge, and in papers in our community to convey to us -who are patriotic to our own papers, our own press, our own media- what products and programs you have available. This is an institution that spends every year literally millions of dollars on marketing sports teams across this country (baseball, basketball, football, NASCAR and golf), and on the global front as well. Maybe some of those dollars need to be directed. While BOA has an aggressive plan to create more business opportunities in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia, the Black communities in NY and in America continue to struggle at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. Because BOA has been pioneering in the industrial revolution in creating businesses in the post-W.W.ll era, because BOA has been pioneering in the most successful businesses in this country, pioneering in helping to build bridges and the military strength of America, BOA has been effective. BOA claims it does business with 3 out of every 4 Black consumers in America**, certainly it needs to look at how to do the same pioneering work with Black America.
*Bank of America is facing a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by 5 Black current and former employees who worked in BOA branches across the country. The lawsuit alleges discrimination in pay, promotions, training and support services while steering lucrative clients and business opportunities to their white counterparts. In another lawsuit, a former paralegal claims the bank failed to pay overtime to employees who worked through meal breaks and outside of normal business hours. Additionally, BOA has been challenged for its controversial banking practices including “biggest check first” check clearing, overdraft fees, telemarketing, credit card application policy and early account closures.
**Based on Black Buying Power data, it is estimated that Blacks deposit over $260 billion in Bank of America. Bank of America introduced the Visa credit card. In 2007, BOA purchased Countrywide Financial Corp., a major player in the ongoing mortgage meltdown, holding nine million mortgages valued at $1.4 trillion as of December 2007, which makes the corporation the nation's leading mortgage originator and servicer controlling between 20 to 25 percent of the home loan market. Countrywide is under FBI investigation due to possible fraud in home loans and mortgages.
