{"id":4967,"date":"2017-05-19T08:14:59","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T15:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=4967"},"modified":"2017-05-19T08:15:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T15:15:20","slug":"amid-divestment-protests-cities-explore-public-banks-billmoyers-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/05\/19\/amid-divestment-protests-cities-explore-public-banks-billmoyers-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid Divestment Protests, More Cities Explore Public Banks (billmoyers.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Wells Fargo bank sign (Photo by Mike Mozart<\/a> | Flickr CC 2.0<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

This story<\/a> was originally published on<\/em>\u00a0NextCity.org,\u00a0which publishes daily news and analysis on cities.<\/em><\/p>\n

May 15, 2017<\/p>\n

Philadelphia City Council Member Cindy Bass was already thinking about how to cut the city\u2019s ties with Wells Fargo when bank CEO John Stumpf<\/a> testified last September before the US Senate. Questioning Stumpf about the bank\u2019s fraudulent accounts scandal, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said<\/a>, \u201cSo you haven\u2019t resigned, you haven\u2019t returned a single nickel of your personal earnings, you haven\u2019t fired a single senior executive. Instead, your definition of accountable is to push the blame to your low-level employees who don\u2019t have the money for a fancy PR firm to defend themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Search the US Department of Justice website<\/a> for \u201cWells Fargo\u201d and \u201csettlement\u201d and you\u2019ll get a litany of results: a $25 billion settlement<\/a> for foreclosure abuse (a record), $1.2 billion<\/a> for improper mortgage lending practices, and $184.3 million<\/a> in compensation for steering black and Latino borrowers into predatory subprime mortgages. The 2016 hearing was the moment when the wheels fell off the stagecoach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stumpf finally stepped down, about a month later, but he never returned a nickel of his pay. In fact, he left with a $133.1 million severance package.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir lackluster responses, it was so outrageous, they just didn\u2019t get it,\u201d says Bass. \u201cAs a city, how could we be in bed with this company? As the City of Brotherly Love, we stand for more, we should have an expectation for more.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sept. 29, 2016, Bass co-introduced, and city council unanimously passed, a resolution directing the council\u2019s finance committee<\/a> to hold hearings on the impact of the Wells Fargo scandal and the feasibility of removing the bank as a city depository.<\/p>\n