Bank of America Accused of Latin@ Exploitation

by Leigh Graham · 2009-07-01 12:00:00 UTC
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A group of whistle-blowers has come forward, with the backing of SEIU, claiming that as employees of BOA they were taught to prey on low-income, Latin@ customers to sign up for a plethora of services - of redundant ones - in order to extract as many fees from them as possible.  It's a pretty interesting read for the multiple competing interests in the article, and notable for its absence of any input from current or former customers.

The whistle-blowers, current and former employees, are mostly Spanish-speaking women on the front lines of customer sales.  Some have been fired for expressing interest in unionizing, and SEIU is supporting them in what's becoming a campaign against BOA because it's trying to organize the nation's largest bank.  BOA, of course, insists that it's practices are legal and customary in the industry, which is probably at least technically true, and that customers and employees alike are satisfied.  What a mess.

There's some evidence to support the whistleblowers' claims, and the fact remains that BOA has very profitably seemed to prey on low-income, new American communities.  Furthermore, BOA recently settled a class-action lawsuit in which they did not have to admit any wrong-doing but were nonetheless shown to be maximizing fees unlawfully - whether in spirit or to the letter.

I find whistleblowers fascinating because most of the time it takes guts to implicate yourself (Brownie turning on Bush is an exception that comes immediately to mind; maybe he's just a disgruntled employee).  In this case especially, these employees' actions sound pretty detestable, even if it was all in a day's work.  So I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt; I also know anecdotally how miserable and punitive BOA has been regarding home foreclosures in Boston and regarding friends' bank accounts.  So I'm a biased audience.

Still, I think there's something to how easy corporate malfeasance becomes, when it's built into the system in a careful set of steps that are officially legal but add up to illegality or legal exploitation.  I hope we hear more of this case as it unfolds.

H/t Racewire

(Photo of "the bank you can trust" by TheTruthAboutMortgage.com)

Leigh Graham
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