5/18/2023 0 Comments Wells fargo online banking sign in![]() Native organizers identified Wells Fargo as a primary target for boycotts and divestment campaigns, given the bank’s routine violations of Indigenous rights. As a researcher studying the power and politics of banks, I had watched for decades as the pressure against Wells Fargo mounted and more people called for change. No one knows exactly what set off the chain of events that caused regulators to finally close the bank. So, many people were ready to celebrate the closure of a bank that had once been deemed “too big to fail.” ![]() We explained how private banks make money off of dubious account fees and how proprietary credit scoring algorithms surveil and discriminate. ![]() We taught popular education and built political power. We didn’t just teach people how to contest their overdraft fees or fix errors on their credit reports. Organizers and academic researchers like myself started to leverage the financial education that banks had financed. Banks spent millions of dollars each year telling people to take responsibility for their finances and budget their way out of poverty. People were radicalized by an onslaught of environmental and economic catastrophes, bank scandals (especially scandals involving Wells Fargo), and a creative use of financial education that, collectively, brought banks’ power into sharp focus. I walked quickly out of the building to join a small crowd that had gathered spontaneously in the university quad and whose chorus, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Wells Fargo has got to go!” was growing louder by the minute.Įighteen years ago, a bank closure wouldn’t have gotten this kind of attention. I grabbed my bag and slid out, from behind my bookshelf, the decorated poster board with bold lettering that I’d prepared for just this occasion. I heard a few cheers erupt from the bustling sidewalk outside my office window. Yes! I had been anticipating this day for months, and it had finally arrived. I swiveled around in my chair and threw my hands into the air. I had just submitted my final grades for the semester and was finishing my morning tea when the alert popped up on my phone. Wells Fargo closed its doors today for good, ending the megabank’s centuries-long reign of power in the global economy.
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