Banking and Your Community

Evaluating Banks and Credit Unions

How do we evaluate whether or not to put our money in a particular bank or credit union? By what criteria can we compare the pros and cons of our different options? The role of banking institutions is to provide a reliable flow of financial resources into productive areas, including businesses (for job creation, job retention, and business development), building infrastructure (commercial and residential properties), and for personal and family needs. While most of our individual accounts are small relative to massive bailouts or corporate financial wealth we see, we need to keep in mind that banks are allowed to leverage our money to whatever end they have built their business around. When we place our money in large national and multinational banks that are not rooted or accountable to our communities, we are facilitating the extraction of wealth from where we live with profit being consolidated primarily among the already wealthy. Choosing instead to build our communities so that more real wealth can flourish locally, how then do we evaluate our banking options? In essence, we take the view that banking should be seen more in terms of public benefit (like a utility) as opposed to creating financial wealth for a small percentage of the world. A public, or state owned bank like the bank of North Dakota would be the ultimate example of putting our financial resources to productive use in such a way that directly benefits the communities we live in. That said, within our current banking options in Oregon, there are various attributes associated with each type of organization, whether a bank be owned by shareholders and publicly traded on Wall Street, or a privately owned bank, or a credit union whose members are the direct owners of the organization. Each bank or credit union has a different impact in the communities they operate in. For more information, read Jared’s article in Connections, the periodic publication of Coalition for a Livable Future. Please contact us if you have anything to add or comment!