Has George Bailey Left For Good?

Saturday, 12 November 2016

Has George Bailey Left For Good?

     I ran into some troublesome news about a month ago. I was reading the news at the time, so clearly I was asking for trouble, and sure enough it found me. I read that the French multinational banking conglomerate BNP Paribas was among the financial backers of the Dakota Access Pipeline project.

     This was troubling to me because my friendly neighborhood bank, Bank of the West, is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. Once again, I found myself face-to-face with my own privileged hypocrisy: I fear climate change and sling self-righteous anger at the people and companies still profiting from fossil fuels, yet here I am maintaining my last remaining bank account with just such a company.

     I will admit I have a less than stellar personal track record when it comes to conserving fuel, reducing my carbon footprint, et cetera. Like many of my fellow Americans, I make full use of the electric grid to run a furnace, an AC system, and a hot water heater. My concern for the future of the planet still falls short when I have an immediate need to stop sweating, stop shivering, or take a hot shower. Nor does my desire for a livable environment stop me from cranking up my twenty-seven-year old three-quarter-ton pickup truck when I have errands to run or a job to get to, never mind that my gas mileage tops out at about 10mpg on the highway (I can feel your sanctimonious sneers, Prius drivers). In light of these facts, paying a few bucks in service charges to a subsidiary company of a DAPL stakeholder might seem so minor a sin as could be ignored, yet I found I could not let it go. Almost on impulse, the next time I brought in a paycheck to the bank for processing, I stopped and asked the branch manager about closing my account.

     Now I’m in a real pickle, because I need a checking account with someone in order to keep paying my bills. I have a few weeks’ grace on that, but finding a Socially Responsible local banking option is proving as difficult as finding an honest man in congress. Several times now I have fired up the search engines looking for some financial holding company run by the likes of George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life, and I keep on finding Mr. Potter and his Wall Street partners at every turn. I shouldn’t be surprised that finance organizations operate in the dark, like vampires, avoiding exposure to the glaring eye of the internet, but it is frustrating not even being able to tell where to begin looking.

     Banks I have investigated which seem small-time are often owned by New York money mafias or international finance-swindling conglomerates, and even that information is blasted difficult to find. The truth of it is that you will never find truth on any company’s own website, but with banks the obfuscation does not stop there. Third-party assessors focus their findings on the numerical advantages and disadvantages to potential investors and devote zero effort towards finding what else these conglomerations are funding. Left-wing environmentalist sites are delighted to provide the names of DAPL funders, but rarely offer any comprehensive sense of alternatives to those of us who just want a checking account with a friendly, local organization.

     It is not as though I will be moving huge assets around-- my account is already cleared monthly by all the creditors collecting from me these days. I suppose I just felt it was time for a gesture, no matter how small or apparently stupid. Stupid is fine, as long as it doesn’t also mean Pointless. Thus I am committed now-- to go back to Bank of the West or step sideways into another fossil fuel investor’s system would completely defeat the purpose of all the hassle I am putting myself through.

     The search is not defeated, nor is it hopeless. I have heard encouraging things about credit unions, as opposed to more traditional banks, and there are several institutions with “Colorado” in their titles I haven’t looked into yet. In the meantime, increasing the heat-efficiency of the house and researching more fuel-efficient cheap cars are both worthy causes to take on. Maybe I started at an unusual point, but the journey towards responsibility has to start somewhere-- why not here?

     Are you out there, Bailey Building & Loan? You have a new customer.