SEIU calls on Congress to close loopholes allowing major bank mergers

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/7687

SEIU calls on Congress to close loopholes allowing major bank mergers - 01/14/08

Lede: The Service Employees International Union is calling on Congress to close loopholes in the law that allow the kind of mergers like the $4 billion Bank of America/Countrywide deal. Doug Cunningham has more.

By Doug Cunningham

SEIU says allowing Bank of America to buy the nearly bankrupt Countrywide is like putting a terminally ill patient in a room with a sick patient and expecting both to get better. SEIU believes this is too much concentration of risk because Bank of America comes close with this deal to controlling ten percent of the nation’s bank deposits. With the deepening housing crisis, Bank America is becoming even more concentrated in mortgage lending and the union says that’s unacceptable risk for America’s working families and consumers. Countrywide’s CEO Angelo Manzillo will get more than a hundred million dollars in severance as Bank of America buys Countrywide, even though he drove Countrywide to near bankruptcy and lost money for Countrywide’s investors. SEIU wants Congress to aggressively enforce the cap on banks not controlling any more than of ten percent of the nation’s deposits.