Political Quotes

“Madam President, Bank of America made an announcement. They announced they were eliminating their proposed $5 monthly fee for the use of a debit card. We have kept track and I believe every bank across America has said we are abandoning this approach, and it is a good thing. It is an indication to me that consumers across America have a much larger voice in this process today than they did even a few weeks ago. Consumers and customers of major banks paid close attention when many of these banks, such as Bank of America, said they were going to charge these customers $5 a month to have access to their own money in their checking account. I was asked at the time: What should we do? I said: Customers of these banks should vote with their feet. Start looking for another bank. Find a bank or a credit union that treats them in the manner they want to be treated--fairly and respectfully. The message got out, and that message ended up creating a substantial move of customers from some banking institutions to others. Some reports suggest the activity on credit union Web sites is now up 800 percent. The people at community banks all across America have signs in front of their banks saying, for instance, the one in Georgia: We agree debit cards should be free. What we have at work is two very fundamental principles of our economy, the free market economy--transparency so people know what they are being charged, and competition so they have a choice.…”