Action on banks - what you can do | New Internationalist

Action on banks - what you can do

1 May 2015

It’s quite possible to live without the megabanks. Services and movements offering a better deal or another perspective make much more sense.

401(K) 2015 under a Creative Commons Licence

AUSTRALIA

Compare, Ditch and Switch
betterbanking.choice.com.au/ditch-and-switch
Comparison site run by Choice, the Australian Consumers’ Association. Has led the campaign to get the big four banks to lift their game.

BRITAIN

Move Your Money
moveyourmoney.org.uk
Lists and explains ‘best-in-class’ building societies, ethical banks, banks that scored better than the Big Five, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, credit unions and Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs). Lively blogs and campaigns. Helps you to switch. Highly recommended.

CANADA

Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition (CCRC)
cancrc.org
A non-profit, non-partisan coalition of 100 anti-poverty, consumer, community economic development, labour and small business groups representing more than three million people that since 1996 has led the campaign for bank accountability in Canada. Works with Democracy Watch on its bank accountability campaign.

NEW ZEALAND/AOTEAROA

Co-op Money NZ
coopmoneynz.org.nz
Industry voice for credit unions and mutual building societies. ‘Unlike the big, overseas-owned banks, profits made by credit unions and building societies are not paid to external shareholders, but put back into improving products and services for their Member-owners and the local communities they live in.’

UNITED STATES

A Smarter Choice
asmarterchoice.org
Finder site of the Credit Union National Association. A grassroots protest about unfair bank practices on Bank Transfer Day in 2011 prompted an estimated 610,000 people to move their accounts to a credit union or community bank.

INTERNATIONAL

Banktrack
banktrack.org
A global network of civil-society groups tracking the operations and investments of private-sector banks... and their effect on people and the planet. Supports Global Divestment Day and a growing grassroots movement to force institutions and banks to divest from the fossil-fuel industry. One of the most vigorous and effective current actions on finance.

And here's what they've been doing in Spain...

With youth unemployment running at 50 per cent and more, young people in Spain have been among those hit most harshly by the banks – and responding most imaginatively.

How would you rob a bank?
Artist Núria Güell got expert advice by writing to Jaime Giménez Arbe, a notorious bank robber serving a 47-year prison sentence. Her master plan is a piece of political art aimed at exposing the people she believes are responsible.

flo6x8: Bankia, pulmones y branquias (bulerías) – Bankia, lungs and gills (flamenco)
You don’t need to know Spanish (though you’ll miss the lyrics) to appreciate these performers occupying the sterile lobby of a branch of Bankia, one of the banks at the heart of the crisis in Spain, with a joyous rendition of their radical art form.