For people who want to Move Your Money, this is a huge hit. Socially responsible banks are going down just like everyone elst, unfortunately.
(One beef with the article--since when do progressives have anything to say about the news cycle?)
http://www.truth-out.org/fiddling-while-us-economy-burns62579Meanwhile, even as the Administration seems to be finding signs of a “recovery,” a parade of failures march on from the discovery that there is an oil slick the size of Manhattan in the Gulf, to the persistence of frauds in finance from state pension funds in New Jersey, to the case against the head of the Bank of America.
Even worse, ShoreBank, one of the banks that community activists considered a national model of social responsibility has gone down in Chicago, the 104th bank to fail this year with 15 branches including some in Detroit and Cleveland.
The bank was also active in 40 countries. In June, it reported over $2 billion in deposits. By August, it was gone. In all, 349 U.S. banks have disappeared since 2007.
ShoreBank promoted itself as a community development and environmental bank. It was based in Michelle Obama’s old neighborhood with the slogan “Lets Change The World.”
Now the world of Wall Street has changed the bank with a partnership of investors including American Express, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs taking over under the name “United Partnership.”
Hundreds of other banks are on the FDIC hit parade and may be next.
There were many worse casualties in banking in the past according to Barry James Dyke’s informative book, Pirates of Manhattan. He notes that 10,000 banks failed during the Depression and 2,900 bit the dust in the S&L crisis.