Big banks are everywhere. The banking industry has designed ways to expand their services at a huge cost to local communities, taking money out of these communities to be used by large central banks located elsewhere. The bank’s local branch may be community based but the shareholders and owners all are outside of local communities. Branches extract money and send it to the central headquarters where local money is invested in big international deals that don’t affect the community.
Banking locally is a great way to start empowering communities by supporting them. One of the reasons large banks are so successful is that folks are often unwittingly ready to sacrifice their own communities for the bank’s profits. Community banks and credit unions offer the same services at lower costs, decisions are made locally and investments are homegrown and productive.
Credit Union Central of Canada has created a geomapped database where folks can search for community banks and credit unions in their area. Stop the big bank takeover! Close your big bank account and open one with a community institution.