For Immediate Release:
April 22, 2008

Contact: Peter Skillern, CRA-NC, 919-667-4201
Tanya Aquino, SEIU, 321-960-3802

Bank of America Urged to Agree to Steps Before Fed Hearing on April 28, 2008

CHARLOTTE, NC—One day before the shareholders of America's biggest bank are set to meet, consumer advocacy organizations from North Carolina and around the country held a "Real Stakeholders' Meeting" to talk about nation's credit and foreclosure crisis and its affect on families.

CRA-NC, the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) released a report entitled, "Higher Standards? What America's biggest bank owes its customers and Countrywide borrowers," to delve into the potential effects of Bank of America's acquisition of Countrywide of various stakeholders such as communities, consumers, taxpayers, bank employees, and shareholders.

The report lists meaningful steps which Bank of America should take in order to accept the responsibility of its impact on their stakeholders and become a model financial institution. The groups called for the bank to make commitments to the steps before the Federal Reserve's public hearing on the Countrywide deal in Los Angeles on April 28-29, 2008.

According to the report, the commitments Bank of America should make are:

1. Pledge not to import Countrywide’s business model; present a detailed, transparent, and verifiable plan to reform Countrywide’s servicing platform; end abusive practices such as prepayment penalties, pay-option ARMs, and no-documentation or low-documentation loans; and work with an independent organization to evaluate the fairness and effectiveness of the servicing unit on a quarterly basis, and make the results of the quarterly evaluations publicly available.

2. Commit to modifying the terms of mortgage loans for borrowers in a manner that realistically accounts for their ability to repay the loans; to publicly reporting the results of its workout efforts on a quarterly basis; to refinancing all ARMs into long-term fixed rate loans, with the goal of keeping homeowners in their homes; and to providing $10 million to pay for housing counseling services for borrowers.

3. Ensure that critical Countrywide staff who can underwrite loan modifications and other support staff are kept intact in their current offices to deal with the servicing needs of delinquent borrowers; appropriately train staff to meet this challenge; and commit to having trained loan underwriters on staff.

4. Commit to changes in company policies that add much needed consumer protections in credit cards, retail banking, and mortgages; discontinue abusive practices such as risk-based repricing of credit cards, and "anytime for any reason" credit card interest rate hikes; pledge to use its market power to bring down consumer fees rather than driving them up; end aggressive opposition at the federal level to legislative and regulatory reforms of predatory consumer practices, including the basic consumer protections in the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, and meaningful foreclosure prevention measures.

5. Pledge to take significant measures to improve corporate governance policies and practices to adequately protect shareholder interests.

"Now is not the time to endanger the thousands of homeowners on the brink of foreclosure by handing over their mortgage to a bigger bank which has yet to promise to take responsibility for the damage already done by Countrywide," said Alan Fisher, Executive Director of the California Reinvestment Coalition, "The bank needs to have a specific plan now which protects consumers and prevent a costly taxpayer bailout."

"I would like to make very clear that my husband and I are working very diligently to secure the funds we need to save our home," said Vonda Hopkins, a resident of Greensboro, North Carolina, whose home is up for foreclosure sale next month. "Home ownership is the American dream.  This home was our dream when we made the purchase and we will not allow this situation to taint our dream and keep us from living out our dream in our home.  The bank can stop this from happening right now, with my family by making reforms today."

The stakeholders meeting is the latest in a series of events hosted by SEIU in partnership with consumer advocacy organizations around the country to call for better practices and consumer protections in the banking and credit card industries which run with too little regulation.

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CRA-NC is a nonprofit agency whose mission is to promote and protect community wealth.  The agency is responsible for over $40 billion in community lending commitments from financial institutions in North Carolina. CRA-NC has emerged as a national voice on the issue of predatory lending and the need for reforms in the subprime lending markets. For more information visit: http://www.cra-nc.org/index.htm

The California Reinvestment Coalition advocates for the right of low-income communities and communities of color to have fair and equal access to banking and other financial services. CRC has a membership of more than 240 nonprofit organizations and public agencies across the State. For more information visit http://www.calreinvest.org/

With 1.9 million members, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the fastest-growing labor union in North America. Together with consumer advocacy organizations and elected and community leaders around the country, SEIU is leading efforts to hold the nation's largest banks accountable to working families and our communities.

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Contact: Lynda Tran, 202-907-1172
Tanya Aquino, 321-960-3802

As federal lawmakers debate legislation that would protect consumers from rising credit card interest rates, U.S. Representative Barney Frank and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley are taking part in a town hall meeting today to discuss the devastating impact of unfair banking and credit card practices on consumers and working families . Town hall participants will share stories about how they have been affected by banking issues ranging from rising ATM and overdraft fees on checking accounts to higher interest rates and unfair terms on credit cards. Others will be victims of the abusive subprime and predatory lending that is fueling Massachusetts’ fasting-growing foreclosure crisis.

“As I was going through my divorce, I needed food and clothes and school supplies and I began to rely on my credit cards to get those things for myself and my son ,” says Denise Perrault, a mother and a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts who filed for bankruptcy after the interest rate increased on her credit cards. “ At first I tried to work with the credit card companies on my payments but it got harder and harder to do. The average working person cannot possibly give the time and effort it takes to get a square deal from the credit card banks.”

The widespread use of policies including universal default and risk-based re-pricing, among other practices that can leave working people with unexpected hikes in fees and interest rates have come under increasing fire recently amid mounting concerns of a looming economic recession. The impact of credit card debt in particular has been increasingly compared to the subprime mortgage loan crisis, most recently in BusinessWeek and Fortune (“The Consumer Crunch,” Michael Mandel, BusinessWeek 11/26/2007; “The $915 Billion Bomb in Consumers’ Wallets,” Peter Gumbel, Fortune, 11/1/2007).

“I have always prided myself on paying my bills on time and handling my finances well—but in December of 2006, I received my first and only ‘late payment’ strike on my credit report from Bank of America,” says Eileen Curtis, a retired social worker from West Borough, Massachusetts and mother of two. “I accepted the fact that I missed a payment—that was my responsibility. However, I became frustrated with Bank of America’s never ending nickel-and-diming, and I have since closed all my accounts with them.”

Today’s gathering is jointly hosted by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MassPIRG), and United for a Fair Economy and is the second in a series of town hall style discussions with lawmakers and consumer advocacy organizations planned nationwide to address banking issues.

In December, SEIU released a number of reform principles to hold the nation’s biggest banks accountable to working families, including:

• Basic standards for fees and interest rates on credit cards, bank accounts, and other bank products.
• Greater community reinvestment standards—including providing bank branches and fair loan products for low-income and communities of color.
• Stronger oversight of bank practices and better protections for consumers and working families at the national and state levels.
• Limits on how big the biggest banks—and the reach of their harmful policies—can grow.

“Ensuring that widely-available and competitively-priced comprehensive banking services are offered to all of America’s working families is a major responsibility of the Financial Services Committee,” said Congressman Frank, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. “SEIU’s statement of principles is a welcome reminder of the importance of that responsibility and underscores my belief that there remains work to be done.”

For immediate release:
Thursday, March 13, 2008

Contact: 
Lynda Tran, 202-907-1172

Statement by SEIU, Consumers Union, USPIRG, Consumer Federation of America, and Consumer Action on the Cancellation of Consumer Testimony at the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Hearing

This morning's cancellation of the panel presenting consumer testimony to the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit is yet another example of the nation's biggest banks and credit card issuers refusing to recognize the real human impact of their harmful practices on consumers and working people around the country.

Working Americans should be able to tell their stories to Congress about the egregious abuses they have experienced without having to relinquish their basic privacy rights. Big banks may have succeeded today in gagging today's consumer witnesses but they will fail in squelching growing consumer outrage of millions of Americans who are sick and tired of the banks abuses. Today's occurrences only reinforce the huge power imbalance between banks and ordinary Americans.

The facts are undeniable-the industry's insistence on driving up credit card interest rates, hitting consumers with fee after fee, and other practices are pushing families to the brink of financial ruin and contributing to a national economic crisis.

It's not hard to understand how it might be uncomfortable to look working people in the eye when your business model is designed to make higher and higher profits at their expense. However the credit card industry and lawmakers plugging their ears to the hardships of American families suffering at hands of the nation's largest financial institutions isn't going to make it go away.

For Immediate Release

Contact: 
Elizabeth Brennan, 213-999-2164
Lynda Tran, 202-730-7349

***** MEDIA ADVISORY for Wednesday, February 20 *****

As concerns grow that credit card debt will lead to the 'next subprime crisis'…

Community hearing to discuss impact of runaway debt, unscrupulous practices by credit card companies

U.S. Rep. Joe Baca to hear testimony from consumers, community leaders in first in series of town-hall style hearings planned nationwide

Los Angeles -- With a growing number of lawmakers and industry analysts warning runaway credit card debt could be the "next subprime crisis" with similar catastrophic effect on the nation's economy, workers and community leaders throughout the Los Angeles area are hosting a community hearing to discuss the impact of credit debt and unfair banking and credit card practices on consumers and working families. Congressman Joe Baca (D-CA) is expected to join consumer advocacy organizations, faith, and labor leaders to call on elected representatives to ensure the nation's biggest banks-including the largest bank, Bank of America-follow meaningful bank reforms.

WHAT:  Town Hall meeting to discuss impact of credit card debt on working families

WHO:  U.S. Representative Joe Baca Victims of credit card and banking industry bad practices

WHEN:  6:30PM - 8:30PM Wednesday, February 20, 2008

WHERE:  West Covina Senior Center, 2501 East Cortez Street

The widespread use of policies including universal default and risk-based re-pricing, among other practices that can leave working people with unexpected hikes in fees and interest rates have come under increasing fire recently amid mounting concerns of a looming economic recession. The Los Angeles town-hall style hearing is the first in a series of community hearings with lawmakers and community advocacy organizations planned nationwide to discuss banking issues.

Video Contest Sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and League of Young Voters Warns Against Danger of Growing Debt Among Young Americans, Offers $5,000 Prize to Best Student PSA Effort

WASHINGTON, D.C.///February 6, 2008///It's spreading … one person can give it to another … even the nicest people have it and can't get rid of it … you can't tell if someone has it … it only takes one time to catch it.

The "it" featured in a video promoting a new contest for budding filmmakers is the growing problem of "Debt Disease" among young Americans. With the biggest banks in the United States-including the nation's largest bank by deposits, Bank of America-increasingly marketing credit cards to college students in particular, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the League of Young Voters today unveiled "Keep It In Your Pants" (http://www.KeepItInYourPants.org), a video contest with a top prize of $5,000 for the best student-made public service announcement (PSA) running 30-60 seconds.

"Credit card debt can ruin your life, spreading and growing like a disease," said Stephen Lerner, SEIU Assistant to the President and Director of the Private Equity Project. "We're warning young people of the dangers of 'Debt Disease'-and urging them to protect themselves the same way they would against any other dangerous and contagious social epidemic."

The first-place winner of the "Keep It In Your Pants" contest-open to students 14 years of age and older enrolled in middle school, junior high, high school, college, or graduate school-will receive a $5,000 scholarship for school-related expenses.  Four runners-up will each win a $500 scholarship for school-related expenses. Submissions will be accepted at www.KeepItInYourPants.org until March 12, 2008. Semi-finalists will be announced on April 2, 2008 and the winner will be announced at a red-carpet event on April 23, 2008.  Complete rules are available at www.KeepItInYourPants.org/Rules.cfm .

With Americans holding nearly one trillion dollars in credit card debt nationally, "Debt Disease" is a growing issue among college-age individuals in particular.  Some of the biggest banks in the country employ troubling practices that contribute to Americans-including students-going deeper and deeper into debt. KeepItInYourPants.org explains what "Debt Disease" is, how it can be caught, and how to avoid it, providing statistics including:

• The average American carries as many as nine different credit cards.
• College students are one of the credit card industry's fastest-growing markets. It is estimated that 78% of college students have at least one credit card.
• The biggest banks already control the majority of the credit cards issued in the United States, and Bank of America controls 1 in 5 credit cards and 1/5 of the credit card debt in the country.
• 82% of Americans believe household debt is a serious problem and the general public is more concerned about falling into debt than about being the victim of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

To draw parallels between "Debt Disease" and other social epidemics, the website points would-be contributors to examples of current and past videos, including venereal disease-related educational films from the 1940s-1970s.

ABOUT SEIU

With 1.9 million members, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the fastest-growing labor union in North America. Together with consumer advocacy organizations and elected and community leaders around the country, SEIU is leading efforts to hold the nation's largest banks accountable to working families and our communities.

CONTACT: Lynda Tran of SEIU at 202-907-1172 or Lynda.Tran@seiu.org.