Yesterday, as the Bank of America held its annual shareholders meeting hundreds of protesters took to the streets to vent their anger that B of A is doing relatively little to help troubled homeowners underwater on their mortgages despite the bank committing to the federal government it would do so.
While in the meeting, Sister Barbara Bush, who works with troubled Cincinnati homeowners told the CEO that 40% of the mortgages are held by the B of A which is the least responsive of the lenders she works with. "We find that we have no one to talk to because no one calls us back," Sister Bush said.
The CEO claimed the bank has 50,000 people assigned to work with troubled home owners, which of course is no answer because Sister Bush's problem exists all over the nation, frustrating numerous troubled homeowners trying to save their homes from foreclosure or whose finances qualify them for a mortgage reduction, as committed to by the B of A to the government.
The B of A needs to create a streamlined system to deal with them, and at the minimum, they need people accountable to return phone calls and document the cases for processing, stopping foreclosures in the meantime.
When the B of A and other giant lenders were on the verge of collapse, the government immediately rescued them with tens of billions of dollars in bailouts as "too big to fail." But working class America has no lobbyists, got no such bailouts and is dependent upon the good faith of these giant lenders.
When that good faith isn't honored, the people must non-violently take to the streets. While others buy shares in the banks so they can attend annual shareholder meetings and express themselves, bringing direct pressure to bear on unresponsive managements. It is activists that have always brought change in America and that is what it will take now, as families fight to keep their homes.
If only those bank managements would look at and listen to those families, they would understand so much better than they do now and they would become problem solvers, as they saw people just like themselves. No CEO would want his family in the situation these people are in and he would make it his business to do something about it.
Dick
To learn more, please see "Bank of America CEO faces shareholder ire as protests swirl," Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bofa-protests-20120509,0,5697025.story
No comments:
Post a Comment