U.S.: A Credit Union to Bail Out People, Not Big Banks

• by Judith Scherr (san francisco, california)
• Saturday, January 21, 2012
• Inter Press Service

The Occupy Movement condemns the banks' role in predatory lending and the foreclosure crisis, the high-interest student loans they say enriches the bankers and impoverishes college students, bank investments in private prisons and more.

But protesting isn't enough for Occupy San Francisco activist Brian McKeown. He says a bank should be a transparent institution whose mission is to help people. And so, with like-minded partners, McKeown is putting together a plan for the People's Reserve Credit Union (PRCU). Occupy San Francisco is encouraging the venture.

In the next few weeks, McKeown says he'll be ready to submit the PRCU's application for a charter to the California Department of Financial Institutions.

'The country's been devastated economically because of greed and government malfeasance,' McKeown said in a recent interview at the downtown San Francisco Public Library. 'I don't think it's hard for folks who are educated to understand that the banks have ripped us off.'

The PRCU will be patterned on the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, where McKeown spent three months studying microfinance. Its interest rates will be low and loans will go mostly to people who couldn't otherwise qualify for loans at banks or even at most credit unions. However, they won't be targeted to people who cannot pay them back.

Borrowers will be required to attend classes in business and personal finance and will have mentors to help their businesses succeed and to enhance their ability to pay back the loan. The PRCU will work with San Francisco State's Community Service Learning Project to provide the education component, McKeown said.

San Francisco entrepreneur Tim Mayer, who is advising McKeown, said the bank will offer the same services other banks do. 'But there will be a different consciousness,' he said. The PRCU board 'will not focus on shareholder profits,' he said, but will be 'concerned with the welfare of those they are servicing.'

While microloans in developing countries can be as low as 100 dollars, McKeown is planning to offer loans of around 1,000 dollars. That amount may seem small in a place like San Francisco, he said, but it's enough to fund materials to make jewelry, buy a used server for someone creating computer apps, or to rent equipment, which an allied non-profit organisation would purchase. Funding student loans may come later, as the bank grows, he said.

'I'd rather support 12 taco stands than one Taco Bell,' McKeown quipped.

To apply for the charter, McKeown needs to have his board of directors in place — he said he does, but is not yet ready to reveal their names. (Selection of the board will be preliminary and subject to an eventual election by PRCU members.)

McKeown needs to present a business plan and show that he has adequate capitalisation to get chartered. He said they already have some wealthy backers and a fundraising concert is in the works.

The road ahead for the new credit union will not necessarily be easy, cautioned Rafael Morales, public affairs and west coast programme officer at the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions.

'There's generally a high rate of failure for most start ups,' said Morales, who has had preliminary meetings with McKeown. He said usually the NFCDCU recommends that a credit union begin with operating capital of one to two million dollars to carry it through several years.

'The first couple of years are unprofitable,' Morales said. 'The more working capital, the higher chance of success.'

Others say it can be done for less. Warren Langley, former president and CEO of the Pacific Exchange in San Francisco — and a supporter of the Occupy Movement — told IPS he thought a credit union could be established with 100,000 to 200,000 dollars.

McKeown said he plans to capitalise the bank at 250,000 to 500,000 dollars for the first year, keeping expenses at a minimum with bank officials working at low or deferred salaries and some without compensation. Mayer acknowledged, however, that it will be a challenge to find a CEO for the PRCU that has the requisite experience, shares the PRCU philosophy and will work for low wages.

A startup credit union also needs 'a committed, capable organising committee', Morales said, noting that McKeown's group is very strong in this area.

The Occupy Movement is a 'big tent' that includes libertarians, Democrats and communists. McKeown may part ways ideologically with those among his fellow Occupiers who reject capitalism.

'I'm a capitalist,' he said.

The problem, as he sees it, 'is in the way capitalism is run. When my business fails, it doesn't get protected. No one comes and bails me out. Why are we bailing out the businesses — financial institutions - - that are supposed to be the most conservative in the world?' He said if the system were working, the big banks would have failed.

'When we had that 800-billion-dollar bank bailout....they took the money and allowed the mortgages to fail,' he said. 'Now all of a sudden Wall Street is making profits again, like it was before. It's a jobless recovery. People have a right to be pissed off. Access to capital and credit made this country great.' He intends to make that access possible through the PRCU.

Of course, one new small credit union won't make big changes in a system that's not working. Langley, the former Pacific Stock Exchange CEO, noted, however, that the PRCU could solve the problem for its members.

'And if everybody, then does more of those [credit unions], it would certainly help,' he said. 'It provides people alternatives.'

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service