by Cynthia Wright
In a bold move, Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, defended his bank’s right to impose a $5 fee on debit cards. In order to take much of the heat off himself and those in partnership with the company, he then said that customers and shareholders understood their recent moneymaking strategy because the bank has a “right to make a profit.”
During his press conference on Wednesday, Moynihan stopped short of blaming Obama who has come out against the greed that banks have been showing by stating that no bank has a right to a certain amount of profit.
“Well, you can stop [the fee] if you say to the banks, ‘you don’t have some inherent right just to, you know, get a certain amount of profit if your customers are being mistreated,’” Obama told ABC.
Of course, Moynihan is on the other side of the spectrum. During an interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, he again stated that as a CEO, he has the duty to make sure all his shareholders are compensated.
Leading those to wonder, is he more preoccupied with fattening the wallets of his shareholders, instead of focusing his interest on the millions who deposit their monthly earnings into his banks around the world? It is not surprising that protests have sparked up around the country stemming form NYC”s Occupy Wall Street that began over two weeks ago.
In a vain attempt to justify the debit fee, Moynihan further explained that the bank was transparent in letting the customers know what they were doing and by giving them a chance to opt out before the new fee goes into effect in 2012.
Due to the changing landscape of Wall Street reforms, such as the Dodd-Frank Act, he was left with no other way to turn a profit as a public institution. At the same time, he tried to make it clear that he didn’t feel the bank was under attack. ”We have the best bank in the world, we do a great job for our customers,” he told Kudlow. Bank of America isn’t the only one imposing new fees on their bank customers; Citibank has also announced a fee accrual plan for checking accounts.
Cynthia Wright is an avid lover of all things geeky. When she isn’t freelancing, she can be found on her blog BGA Life and on Twitter at @cynisright.
