‘Bank Transfer Day’ Protest Attracts Massive Facebook Following, As Well As “Bank Trolls”

By Carl Franzen, Talking Points Memo

15 October 11

emember, remember…to close your bank account and transfer your funds into a credit union on the fifth of November?

That's what more than 32,000 people on Facebook have pledged to do as a form of protest against the much-reviled debit card fees that some of the nation's largest banks are testing or planning on introducing.

Remarkably, all of those people came together in just over a week under the umbrella of a single Facebook event page, the aptly-named "Bank Transfer Day," created by Kristen Christian, a 27-year-old Los Angeles-based independent art gallery owner.

The explosive popularity of the event is no doubt due in part to Christian's savvy skills as a marketer: Seeing the Occupy Wall Street movement spread across the U.S. and knowing the appeal of "Anonymous" stories online, she recruited San Francisco-based artist Eddie Colla to design the "Guy Fawkes" mask logo for her Facebook page. The Facebook page also includes black and white imagery designed to be printed out as paper flyers and posted offline in the real world. One of the flyers contains a QR code linking back to the movement's Facebook page.

And yet, despite using the language of the Occupy protests and the "Guy Fawkes" imagery of Anonymous to promote her event, Christian claims that she's not affiliated with either the hacker group or the Occupy demonstrations.

"I'm not associated with Occupy Wall Street, and they aren't directly involved in Bank Transfer Day, though many supporters of that cause have shown support toward this one," she wrote to TPM in an email.

Christian also adamantly denied receiving any financial support for the project, saying that so far, she's only spent $20 of her own money to register the domain name "www.banktransferday.org," and bus fares to post flyers.

"I have not & don't plan to accept public or private donations," she wrote to TPM. "All funding has come out of my own pocket. Not to say I'm wealthy, by any means…This is entirely a word-of-mouth movement."

She's been getting a lot of media attention for her cause lately, including interviews with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and KLTA Los Angeles.

And don't think that the big banks haven't noticed. In fact, bank employees have allegedly "trolled" the Facebook event page, trying to sow dissent with critical wall postings, at least according to Christian.

"Several corporate-level banking institutions have sent 'trolls' to discourage the movement through the event page, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch," Christian wrote to TPM in an email. "I've encouraged all supporters to respond civilly to these bank employees."

As proof, Christian provided TPM with screenshots of a wall post from a woman who's LinkedIn profile indicates she is a "Teller Ops Specialist" at Bank of America.

TPM has contacted the woman and will update when we receive a response.

"When 'trolls' have been confronted regarding their employment with a corporate banking institution, their posts & profiles have mysteriously disappeared," Christian told TPM.

A Wells Fargo spokesman emailed TPM a statement, writing: "We will always respect the rights of Americans to peacefully assemble, and we also hear and understand the concerns this movement is raising…We can't control what people do to make a statement. What we can do as a company is provide customers and communities with support during tough times by working to keep people in their homes, lend to businesses who are trying to grow and provide jobs. We feel that is the important work that many people want to see us do."

JP Morgan Chase declined to comment for this article. TPM has also reached out to Bank of America (which owns Merrill Lynch) and industry trade group the American Bankers Association to ask them about Christian's accusations and their responses to the event. We'll update when we receive anything from them.

But whatever you think of it, Christian's event has clearly struck a nerve with Facebook users. That's understandable, given the general populist outrage and confusion surrounding the interplay between the big banks, merchants, and governments surrounding the new fees.

Bank of America is set to introduce a $5 monthly fee beginning in January, according to an internal memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal. JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo are testing $3 fees in smaller markets, according to various reports. Sources at JP Morgan Chase told TPM that the bank has no plans to expand its debit card tests at this time.

The banks reportedly began these efforts as a result of the so-called Durbin Amendment, a controversial piece of legislation proposed by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), tacked onto the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, specifically to limit the interchange, or card "swipe fees," big banks (those with over $10 billion in assets) could charge merchants for processing card transactions, to an amount to be determined by the Federal Reserve.

The bitterly contested amendment ended up making it into the final legislation, which was signed into law by President Obama in July 2010.

Obviously, banks weren't big fans of the idea, and have spent considerable resources lobbying against it, threatening to cut services and hike service fees even after the bill was passed and the Fed was deciding how much to cap the interchange fees (eventually settling on 21 cents per transaction in June). That cap went into affect on October 1.

Interestingly, though, credit unions joined in the banks in opposing the amendment, noting that they depend much more on interchange fees for their bottom lines than larger banks. Although the legislation contains an exception specifically for credit unions and institutions with less than $10 billion in assets, credit unions feared that the exemption would be enforceable, and eventually rendered meaningless in the market. As a result, credit unions warned that they too would be forced to cut services and hike other fees.

Since the swipe fee cap went into affect at the beginning of October, the political controversy has only escalated. On Thursday, five Democrats sent a letter to the Justice Department calling upon it to investigate collusion by the big banks to charge debit card fees. Meanwhile, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Bill Owens (D-NY) have introduced legislation to repeal the Durbin Amendment.

And all the while, numerous Web media outlets have reported on Christian's efforts as part of an Anonymous or Occupy Wall Street effort.

But Christian, repeatedly told TPM she is "not associated with any groups" including Anonynous or Occupy Wall Street, said that she created the event "out of frustration in the continued mismanagement of funds and unethical business practices of banks."

"My goal was to educate and inform my friends of these practices and to encourage them to move their money to local credit unions. From there the concept spread at an incredible rate," she said, explaining that she researched the Durbin Amendment and bank practices on her own.

When asked why she chose to employ the Occupy Wall Street mantra "the 99 percent" in the event's description and the now iconic imagery of Anonymous, including the Guy Fawkes mask from the graphic novel-cum-movie "V for Vendetta," Christian wrote:

The date and imagery were chosen in an effort to give new life to the infamous date. It was my hope that the date would no longer be known as the day an accused-terrorist attempted a violent act of rebellion, but as the day that the American people peacefully stood together in solidarity to stop funding big banks unethical business practices. This movement doesn't condone or support terrorism, violence or treason. It's very simply an effort to bring money to the community level where it can make a bigger impact.

Christian also said that the only support she's received is "calls from many credit union representatives offering their assistance in educating both myself and the public on the inter-workings of credit unions. "

Pat Keefe, a spokesperson for the Credit Union National Association, an industry trade group, couldn't comment on whether it knew of any specific credit unions who had spoken to Christian. But Keefe released the following official response to TPM:

We are very much intrigued, as we believe credit unions are the best option for consumer financial services. And if people are upset with big banks, we think they should look at a credit union, and they'll like what they see. But, each consumer has to make the choice of what works best for them, their families and their futures. So, we know that not everybody will ultimately decide to make the change - but we encourage all to give it a very close look.

However, Keffe noted that "given that, as of June '11 (FDIC) commercial US banks hold about $12.4 trillion in total assets (and all credit unions less than $1 trillion)," there probably wouldn't be much impact on the banks themselves. In fact, as counterintuitive as it might seem, if all of the events' attendees actually follow through with their stated intentions, the effect would actually challenge credit unions.

"For credit unions, a big inflow of funds like that can put some pressure on them to maintain earnings," Keefe explained. "Overall, however, we think credit unions could absorb the inflow."

Keefe also said that while credit unions have historically seen an uptick in new customers and funds during times of economic turmoil and uncertainty, the Bank Transfer Day Facebook event and its overwhelming response was unprecedented as far his organization was aware. However, he advised customers to consider their options carefully.

"If you can absorb $3 to $5 a month, and you don't want to go through the hassle of changing financial institutions (and it can be - some banks impose fees for closing accounts, etc.), then stay put," Keefe wrote.

Indeed, the National Credit Union Administration, the independent federal agency that regulates the industry, says much the same thing. As a spokesperson wrote to TPM in an email:

"It is prudent for consumers to weigh the pros and cons of what type of financial institution they choose to bank with. NCUA offers the following general guidelines. As the regulator and insurer of credit unions, however, it would be inappropriate for NCUA to comment specifically on the protest you state.

Still, the event shows no signs of slowing down. And if all of the attendees do end up transferring their money out of the big banks on November 5, it will certainly be a day to remember.

Correction: This article originally misstated the Durbin Amendment applying to banks with over $10 million in assets, rather than the correct $10 billion. We regret the error.