When $700 Billion Isn't Enough

One visit to my website, and you know how I feel. Today was simply VALIDATION when I found these two articles at the Wall Street Journal's website:

• Getting a Handle on Bank Fees
  
• Banks Boost Customer Fees to Record Levels (Gee, you're WELCOME for the $700 Billion)
  

The latter of these two articles backs up the message I'm on a mission to remind bankers: "Your customers don't need you anymore!"

No one needs to be reminded the crisis our country is in today. (Been "off the grid" all year? Read these posts from Oct 14th & Aug 19th.) While there is plenty of blame to spread around, our nation's financial system neared collapse earlier this year prior to the U.S. Government's stepping in to provide a $700 billion "bailout" package. The harsh reality is that it is going to get worse before it gets better. Please fasten your seatbelts and place your tray tables in the upright position!

The U.S. unemployment rate for October, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was reported at 6.5%, up from 6.1% in September. Mortgage foreclosures are happening at rates not seen in this country since the real estate implosion of the late 1980's. Despite the fact that the United States has a new President headed to the White House and a power shift in Congress, those new elected officials won't be in office until late January 2009.

In all fairness, it's not really the smaller, community banks who are to blame for this financial debacle in the mortgage and banking sectors. In fact, many of those banks represent the viable option for consumers who seek someplace safe to keep their money. Should the trends reported by the Wall Street Journal articles above filter down to these community banks, however, I don't know why ANYONE would want to continue doing business with ANY bank!

The regulatory environment that governs many of the overall policies to which commercial banks are subject has done much to "protect" our banking system and consumers. While I'm not a fan of over-zealous, government regulation, I simply believe there are many predatory practices banks engage in every day that add BILLIONS to their bottom lines to which the regulators simply look the other way. We'll get into some of those in some upcoming posts, so keep coming back! You won't BELIEVE what they can do to you!

Consumers: You deserve ANSWERS, TRANSPARENCY, and COMMON SENSE from the financial institutions whose services you employ. Keep coming back to this blog, and you will learn valuable tips your financial institutions don't want you to know about.

Bankers: You'd better get your act together, because the public is weary of your ways, and frankly, have alternative ways of obtaining the services for which you used to have a lock on delivery. Do the right thing. Get ahead of the wave and do what's right. You just might be rewarded with more customers than you'd ever imagined. (Shameless plug: This Consultant Can Help)