Over the past month Occupy Wall Street has gone from being a small protest in one city, to a national movement with very real political and economic impact. Occupy Wall Street is about many things, but at the heart of the heart of the movement is a concern over the influence of large corporations, including the “big banks” like Citigroup and Bank of America. Now, there are signs that the large banks are growing more responsive to customer concerns, possibly in response to the heat brought on by the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The most recent and obvious story of the kinder, gentler big banks came today, as Bank of America’s decided to not charge $5 monthly debit fees as previously planned. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the company decided not to move forward with the fee after receiving negative customer feedback. But Bank of America’s decision was also over concern that customers would move their money elsewhere. None of Bank of America’s rivals followed their plan to start charging customers just to remove their money, which could have led to widespread customer departures had Bank of America stuck with the fee plan. Bank of America originally argued that the fee increase would be necessary, but just last quarter the company reported a profit of over $6 billion, causing some to question just how “necessary” the new fee was.
Occupy Wall Street has been encouraging supporters to “Move Your Money” out of large, multi-national banks that received government assistance. A prominent website behind the movement encourages customers to “invest in Main Street, not in Wall Street” by moving their checking and savings accounts to local credit unions. Even before Occupy Wall Street many customers were moving their accounts to credit unions. In 2009, after the big bank bailout was passed, credit unions saw a 2 percent increase in membership. This year thousands more have participated in public “Move Your Money” events in which they close their accounts at big banks in masse.
Every bank is ultimately dependent on having capital at hand, which is why many of the big banks may now be fearful of seeing their capital drained through a populist movement. Bank of America will surely not cite Occupy Wall Street as the reason behind their reversal on ATM fees, but it would be hard for any reasonable person not to see some influence.
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