Those criteria are:
Loans to small businesses to help grow jobs. “I have been to more than 175 cities and towns so far in the campaign,” he said, “and one thing I hear consistently is that while local community banks are helping the economy grow, the big national banks are strangling credit and preventing small and emerging companies from creating urgently needed new jobs.”
Mortgage foreclosures. Grossman said he was “shocked to learn that foreclosure notices in Plymouth County have jumped more than 375% this year. Because of prolonged unemployment the foreclosure crisis is getting worse not better. Once again the consistent complaint I hear is that community banks are trying to help people work out their problems while the big banks are unresponsive. I have been angered by the stories I have heard about bureaucratic evasion and shoddy customer service.”
Exorbitant credit card interest rates. “In order to beat the start date of the new federal credit card rules that went into effect this February, many card issuers jacked up their rates,” Grossman said. “Because credit cards are issued by banks that operate where there are no interest rate caps, some consumers are being hit with rates of 30% or more. If I am elected Treasurer, I will call upon the banks to limit credit card interest rates to the 18% cap set by Massachusetts law.”
“Short-term interest rates are less than 1%, and as a result most banks will be able to offer competitive rates,” Grossman said.
“In fact,” he added: “At these historically low interest rates, we are practically giving away money to those very banks that already benefited from a $700-billion federal bailout because they were ‘too big to fail.’ Nobody ever told me that my company was too big to fail. No one ever told average citizens that they were too big to fail. But we helped bailout the financial giants, and it is high time that the big banks do something for us.”
To ensure that there is no hint of favoritism or political influence, Grossman said that “his decisions on bank deposits and investments would be open to close public scrutiny. We will have a competitive bidding process where feasible and in all cases we will post the bids and the decisions on the Treasury’s website, going beyond the existing public records requirements of the office.”
locally controlled banks to the extent that they are capable of efficiently handling the state’s business.
The state uses banks that are located out of state and, in several cases, owned by international companies.
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p>Rather than continue to provide funds to these out of state or out of country institutions, the state should look to support its own institutions first. There are many great local banks contributing to their communities in many more ways than the big banks the state uses.
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p>Time to start now.
The Bank of North Dakota model is what this state and every state needs.
The State of North Dakota owns its own bank, the Bank of North Dakota (BND). State and local governments are required to deposit all their money in the BND. BND provides loans within North Dakota, usually through local banks. The profit that BND goes to the state, not to shareholders. This allows the state to provide the most services to residents for the taxes collected.
If they can do it in North Dakota, why not Massachusetts? Why not California, and every other state?
Senate President Therese Murray is thinking of this. Tim Cahill is opposed to it. Tim Cahill is a mutton-head who says “None of this, none of that, none of them high and fancy”, while not offering anything like real solutions for what is happening.
Don’t believe me? Check out the links below. First, BND itself. Then, a Boston Herald article about Murray and Cahill.
http://www.banknd.nd.gov/
http://www.bostonherald.com/bu…
We already have local banks, community banks/credit unions/etc, that serve the same purpose as the Bank of North Dakota would.
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p>For the most part community banks are better run than the big uglies; don’t think we had to bail any of them out. They are locally based. Most, if not all, of their investments are local. I think they get less involved in the crap that caused the meltdown, the derivatives and commoditized horsecrap.
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p>So pull our money out of the big ugly banks, the other out-of-state investment stuff we’re in (those nasty little derivatives, for one), and put it into our own local community banks and credit unions.
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p>Think of the economic multiplier that would have, with money invested here at the local level for our own businesses and homeowners.
I think this is a fabulous idea.
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p>I’d like to nominate my favorite genuinely local bank, the Wainwright Bank and Trust Company. My wife and I moved our personal and business banking there after losing patience with the exorbitant and misleading fees, arbitrary funds availability, and abysmal customer service of Bank of America.
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p>The difference is night and day. On the few times when issues have come up, the branch manager calls to alert us, so that we can resolve it. Fees are reasonable, well-documented, and readily explained. Out-of-state checks clear faster. Most importantly, we have a genuine personal and mutually-beneficial business relationship with the bank.
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p>Care about progressive values? From their website (emphasis mine):
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p>Every interaction my wife and I have had with Wainwright supports the accuracy of this extraordinary claim.