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Press Release October 7, 1998 |
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WASHINGTON - A three-page memo to Congress drafted by the powerful American Bankers Association trashing consumers' efforts to restore basic banking provisions to the Senate Financial Modernization bill cries out for a reality check, according to Consumers Union.
"This industry-sponsored lobby effort is remarkable evidence of how brash, arrogant and out-of-touch today's banking lobbyists are," said Mary Griffin, legislative counsel at the D.C. office of Consumers Union. "We hope Senators don't buy into this drivel and leave consumers out in the cold."
While distributing their counter-attack to the misleading campaign waged by the bankers lobby across the U.S. Senate office complex Wednesday, staffers at Consumers Union passed out frozen juice sticks with the message: "Don't leave consumers out in the cold: restore basic banking"
At issue is low cost basic banking accounts, known as "basic banking" which have low initial deposit and minimum balance requirements and reasonable service fees in exchange for limits on consumer transactions.
Although this provision passed the Republican-controlled House earlier this summer with support from big banks, banking special interests succeeded in stripping it from the bill before it left the Senate Banking Committee. The Senate is expected to consider an amendment by Senator Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa to restore this reform.
"What are the banks whining about?" asked Frank Torres III, legislative counsel at CU's DC office. "Having to provide services to the taxpayers that support them through the deposit insurance system, access to money at below market rates and general support of our government?"
