Bank of America CEO 'Incensed' by Critics
Seems Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan is getting a little testy after weeks of Occupy Wall Street protests, and that has him on a mission to improve his corporation's tattered image.
From Bloomberg News:
Moynihan, 52, told employees in a global town hall meeting last week from the firm’s Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters that the “place to win the battle” over the bank’s battered public image is at the state and municipal level.
Bank of America’s outreach campaign is part of Moynihan’s effort to turn around the lender since he took over as CEO in January 2010 following two taxpayer bailouts. His plan to charge some debit-card users a $5 monthly fee drew reprimands from President Barack Obama and lawmakers, including U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who said customers should withdraw their deposits in protest.
“I, like you, get a little incensed when you think about how much good all of you do, whether it’s volunteer hours, charitable giving we do, serving clients and customers well,” Moynihan said during the Oct. 18 gathering. To the bank’s critics, he said, “You ought to think a little about that before you start yelling at us.”
Not certain how well his plan to circumvent addressing Bank of America's real critics, those pesky protesters at Zucotti Park who have hurt his feelings. Also, too, I wonder if Monyihan's bank has spent $35 million on charitable donations in the past 10 years? Seems only right that donations total at least as much as the bank spent on federal political campaigns and lobbying congress on behalf of its' own corporate interests.
Monyihan did say to think about it a little, and so I did. I didn't bring up his charitable giving.
Been seeing a TV ad here in LA market with a family praising BofA because they were the only bank willing to lend his family money seventy years ago to open a hotdog cart business.
Nice try, BofA, trying to tug at heartstrings, but you know goddamn well you'd NEVER loan money to such an upstart nowadays.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
I think the OWS folks should all apply for hotdog stand loans. And use a hidden camera to record the event.
was an awesome bank hq'd in California that abided by oh, what's the word I'm looking for...REGULATIONS!
How do you expect him to have a clue?
He lives in a gated community
Commutes in a vehicle with tinted windows...
Restricts his friends and attends "Public Events" in glass boxes away from the rest of the people....
I knew one of the original owners of Bank of America (when it was known as the Bank of Italy...yes that far back)....
My cousin (a Korean War Vet) was killed in a horrible accident. This man (BofA co-owner) paid to transport my cousin's body 1500 miles, and personally drove my uncle and my father to the funeral.
No, BofA people weren't always so isolated.... but that was when they were human...
It's what I'm afraid will become of my website (airfield models). It's a small personal site but it's popular with model builders. Someday when I'm gone I fear some corporation is going to come along and do me like Colonel Sanders. Put my name on everything while not having a clue why I did what I did and it will become nothing but corporate crap. I really need a good lawyer and estate executor.
if he thinks BoA is 'all that.'
me-oww!
It's not "volunteer" work if they want some type of reward such as the right to charge customers more money just because they do "good deeds". Maybe it's just me but when I choose to volunteer to do something for somebody else there are no strings attached.
...like for their own kids' schools? Oh oh, the United Way? write a check with illgotten gains? thanks for the charity!
You know, OWS doesn't want CHARITY. They want fairness and a shot to make it on their own. Pretty hard to do when the banks rip everyone off with impunity.
Hey, I'd do some charitable giving too if I could use other peoples' money like you do. STFU you damn thief.
Since I can't afford WalMart anymore, I'm hoping that maybe Dollar General will have a great sale on pitchforks and pikes.
Anyone know anyone who deals in used pitchforks and pikes?
Or, are they only going to be around after the first round when people take care of the CEO's?
If I can't afford the first round, I'll buy used and pitchfork a few Sr. VP's, and put their heads on pikes - right next to their bosses!
Then, let others have some fun with the regular VP's and Directors.
... that turns people into whiners, or would these people have been whiners anyway?
I mean, I know some people who are moderately rich who aren't whiners at all, but maybe there's some level of wealth above which the whining kicks in?
You try to change a battered "public" image by working on local leaders? Gee, what a dumb a$$ I am. I would think your customers is probably a great place to start.
BOA doesn't have a clue. Our mortgage ended up with them. Earlier this year, they notified us (all of their mortgage holders?) that they would no longer be sending us a mortgage statement every month. Nor would they send us an email reminder. They notified us on the back of one of our mortgage statements! I've done a few big change to status quo-type campaigns in my career and this would qualify as a pretty big change. You have to make a very big deal out of something like this. At the very least they should have put in a separate notice of upcoming change. Am email is called for. Actually this should have been done over several cycles. But no. lets put in in small type on the back of their mortgage statement. So, without a mortgage statement, we didn't pay it. First time in 25 years of having a mortgage. We started getting calls that said, "I'm calling about your Bank of America mortgage. I need your mortgage amount." That doesn't sound fishy at all, does it? After several of these calls, we finally asked them what the hell they wanted. They said they couldn't tell us! But we should call this number. TLDR: finally figured out what the heck happened, asked them to waive the $40 late fee. They did. I'd refinance else where, but I've only got a few years left.
Well, the idea isn't to actually become a better bank for the customers. The idea is to make it look like they're a better bank. They're trying to sell a perception.
So I'm conflicted. I have a BofA account still. I hate the things they do politically, but the banker I work with (had to take care of some debts) is a really nice, really helpful guy who really puts time in to my relatively small personal accounts. Their website is fantastic. With so many ATMs, they are super convenient. The problem is that the scale of the bank allows them to do some things (ubiquitous ATMs, high end web development efforts) that I really like, but that same scale also makes them work to political aims at odds to my own. I wish my local credit union could offer even competetive services...
... if more people use your local credit union, they'll be able to offer more competitive services.
(Plus, if you put in a good word for him, maybe they'll hire the BoA banker you currently work with, who may be happy to get a job with a better company.)
Except by virtue of being a local bank, they will never have the resources of a national or international bank.
Credit unions are all over and they tend to not charge ATM fees for other banks' cards. What more do you need?
BoA is the poster child for banks people love to hate and not without reason. Nevertheless it's legal liabilities are difficult to estimate but they are doubtless large and if BoA failed it would stress the living crap out of the whole financial sector. And also adversely affect both the housing market and commercial loans. That wouldn't help at all would it?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
in a "free market" they would have defaulted. they already effed up teh housing market with their so-called "sophisticated" financial instruments that NO one can sort out. They don't care about your little deposits. They could care less. It's the investment side where they make the big dough and screwed the pooch.
Go ahead and move your money. The ATMs run on a "system" like Star, etc, so it doesn't matter which bank you use.
I had a great guy at a local Chase a few years ago. I knew the tellers well, and got what I needed when I needed it, including a bunch of fees waived. If you build a personal rapport with the bank, things can happen.
That said, my office moved and I visit a different branch now, where the manager's desk is a revolving door. I'm in the process of switching to a CU.
...that first bank was NBD, then became Bank One, then Chase. It got worse every time.
Take your money out - go to the credit union and deposit it - work with your CU to make changes that are most convenient to you (and others). If you believe that what BoA does is immoral and bad for Americans - then you should not be conflicted at all!
From the land of 10,000 lakes
I work well over 40 hours a week at a demanding job, convenient banking makes my life materially better. My family lives across the country, where obviously, my local credit union has no branches. Every time I've gone in to a BofA branch, the staff has been helpful and friendly, the branches have decent hours, and there is almost never a line. The CU has fewer branches with less convenient hours and many fewer ATMs. There is always a line or wait to get service. BofA gave my girlfriend and I a card with a promotional rate that blew the CU offer out of the water and saved us lots of money. I understand taking principled stands, but I also have to actually live without spending half my life accomodating inconveniences. And you also completely ignore the fact that the banker we work with personally at BofA is a really nice, helpful guy.
when you get charged with little mystery charges and when that promotional rate blows up in your face suddenly and without warning or when they change the due date of the payment on you without notice, etc etc etc. But, hey, that nice dude will take care of you! I'm glad it's working out so well for you. Don't change your bank.
out (little bits at a time) which I couldn't prove because it always read ATM transaction (when we didn't make one). So we closed our account and it was just reported a month or two ago BofA employees syphoned millions from customers accounts.
What a POS bank.
Hmmm...imagine a law requiring that funds spent lobbying be matched equally with charitable donations...
we see lobbying cut in half!
*
From the land of 10,000 lakes
When I saw the headline I thought that BoA was now dismembering it's critics to use as incense.
Just Won't Burn
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Translation - I have thrown a few bits of food from my plate on the floor for you to eat so you could be happy. Why can't you people be more like dogs and just wag your tail?
Just a message to Mr. Moynihan. You get a great big tax deduction for your "charitable" work.
"Anyone that makes less than $150K in this country, has no business voting Republican."
After all, even Genghis Khan would smell the flowers after raping and pillaging!
Still from his customers/ duh!
Buys a bank Wachovia, caught laundering DRUG MONEY, then BEGGED the DOJ, to keep the Fines low, so they could turn a Profit.
Has done NOTHING to turn over the GUILTY Parties at the SENIOR Level that have helped to cause this problem.
Is working over time with the other, Sell OUT Anti American Banks, investment Firms and Hedge Fund operators to Destroy the Wall Street movement, or do you really think that ALL the POLICE DEPARTMENTS thought about a coordinated attack in all the Cities at the same Time DUH!
Now the best thing for this guy is a BULLET in his Head, and watch him slowly sink to the ground, oh what a JOY, that would be.
Not that there's much difference...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
The nerve of this corrupt mother fucker to complain about how they are treated. FUCK OFF Moynihan!
We can tell how much you care about the little guy, you steaming, oozing puddle of pustule squeezings. That's why your debit card fees are for accounts under $6000. Yeah. Asswad.
FB
FB
99%
"Seems Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan is getting a little testy after weeks of Occupy Wall Street protests, and that has him on a mission to improve his corporation's tattered image."
Except, according to the Bloomberg article upon which this lastest incarnation of clip and paste posterism is based, the campaign to restore BofA's tattered image began in early September. Could it be this had nothing to do with the groups of people camping in cities and meeting daily to determine what they would like to happen?
New "progressive" blog meme: Bad? Blame Obama. Good? Praise #OWS.
With this level of intellectual analysis it is a wonder why some progressive haven't converted everyone
to the cause.
TFR
...should be an interesting month for BOFA. They don't think that Americans have the gall to pull their money out of their bank. Will they lock the doors and call the cops to have BOFA customers arrested for trespassing?
Rachel Maddow had a real good segment about the banks and how they acted in 2008 etc. It was also about how some people have gone to jail. It was really interesting. The Delaware AG Bo Biden was on.
There are many legitimate complaints about BofA, but as an employee I will address the charitable giving aspect because your story was very snarky and not based upon fact. As an employee, BofA matches dollar for dollar my charitable giving up to $5,000. No other company, mom and pop and big corporation, that I've worked for has ever matched one dollar. Additionally, my complex raised $80,000 to build a Habitat for Humanity house. We then spent every Saturday for 4 months building a home for a local family. Each week, there are several volunteering opportunities available for employees to choose from and the company is very generous in giving you paid time off to volunteer. Additionally, we have fair benefits and the company is committed to diversity. You can be openly gay at BofA Merrill Lynch and not worry about being fired. I'm not excusing the actions of prior CEOs and other leadership of BofA, but they got away with it because of the laws and regulation being watered down by elected officials, including Democrats. Before you make a snide remark about charitable giving at BofA, take a minute to think about the 200,000+ employees that donate their time and money to give back to the community. At least be fair in your criticism.
Thanks for doing your part.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Most of us aren't wagging our fingers at you or other employees of BoA...it's your corporate overlords that we are bitching about. Ask them why they need to assess a fee on debit users? Who do you think are using debit cards more often? The poorer customers, that's who. The ones who have less than $5000 in their checking account, living paycheck-to-paycheck. The ones who will now be paying more to use the same benefits of their bank that the richer customers GET FOR FREE.
Where's the fairness and good customer relations in that? As usual with corporations like this, all customers are not equal...those with more money are better, and are treated as such.
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" - Red Green
Freedom Ain't Free - Pay Your Share
My point wasn't directed at the employees or even the company making charitable gifts and volunteering. It was his whining about how we should stop picking on B of A because they do some good things too. I'm glad you give to charity. But B of A has a building full of people working numbers and if charitable contributions didn't turn into more money for B of A they wouldn't do it.
Funny how corporations pretend to be their employees when things get tough. But it's not true.
Corporations are not their employees. Corporations are shareholders, directors, and management. Employees are quite disposable as about 30,000 B of A employees with recent or upcoming pink slips are about to find out.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
this time next year - good luck with that.
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
Dude, do you think govt officials would have gone to all this trouble without a huge push from financial industry lobbyists? Nice try. Yes, government is part of the problem. That's for pointing that out while trying to excuse the CEOs for owning our govt.
to BofA's PR department employees
Go on...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
And given the quality of BofA's service, likely its entire PR dept...
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
in most large corps, no?
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
while the P.R. department reminds you how nicely they said it.
.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
years back. I tried to give them a letter as to why I was leaving "We don't need that. We don't care why you're leaving," is pretty much a direct quote.
me-oww!
but good customer service and great CSRs are the best PR a company can have. A person is much more likely to give bad word of mouth PR due to a bad experience, than they are to give good word of mouth for a good experience. But if you keep things ticking over unspectacularly, you maintain a happy customer base, regardless of word of mouth. You really need to pull someone's fat out of the fire to get good word of mouth.
If you have good customer service, you get good PR for free, it's a twofer.
me-oww!
They just don't get the message.
Hey, Moynihan...we aren't pissed at your low-level employees, nor do we have problems with
you numbskull. It's YOU and your boardroom cronies that we have a problem with, since you all don't seem to understand that you should be treating your customers better, or they're gonna leave your ass and bank somewhere else!
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" - Red Green
Freedom Ain't Free - Pay Your Share
Hey Moynihan, scared yet? Hope so. The 30+ year free ride you guys have had may be coming to an end.
The CEO is more then likely living in a 10 million dollar home that the tax payers paid for few years back from all the bailouts.We bail them out and then they want more money.
Tuition prices are skyrocketing and financial aid is decreasing every year. The next bubble will be the tuition bubble.
Casey Mahoney Brad P
Thanks Casey Mahoney Brad P
Bank of America CEO got his feeling hurt but the criticism when he does such great things for the country.
Obama feels under appreciated for all the tough fighting he's doing for progressives.
What's next? Fox Noise announces that they feel hurt and under rated as a journalist organization?
Just last month---
"Bank of America said Monday that it plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs as part of a plan to save $5 billion.
The announcement came after Chief Executive Brian Moynihan outlined the bank's strategy at an investor conference in New York."
http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/12/news/companie...
Not only did B of A not have a fed tax liability, but now there will be less employee & payroll taxes receipts funding the public coffers.
Yeah, I'm a little incensed, too. The time to OCCUPY is now.
Fffffffuuuuuuuucccckkkkk you!
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
Right on.
I'm incensed that he's incensed. Now where did I put that teeny tiny violin?
Brian Moynihan can suck it AND go to hell, not necessarily in that order.
He's "incensed" with the free market at work is what he really is. This is what happens when you are insulated from the consequences of bad decision by a rigged system. You forget that bad decision have bad consequences in a true free market.
As a suicide bomber terrorist.
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