It was a long, tense day at many Oregon banks Thursday as the Occupy Portland protesters staged their "N17" day of protest against the financial industry.
The event extended beyond Portland to bank branches in Eugene, Corvallis, even The Dalles.
The largely light-hearted protests of earlier in the day gave way to a couple of scary moments late in the afternoon. First, Then officers briefly rushed the crowd before the situation calmed again.
Bankers had best get used to the attention. The Occupy protesters vow to keep the pressure on, reasoning that in the financial industry they've found a high-value target that resonates with a broad swath of American society.
"This was a kickoff for sure," said Kari Koch, N17 spokeswoman. "We want to really start connecting Occupy Portland with the issues that affect people's everyday lives, things like foreclosures, the bank bailout and the industry's clout with Washington."
Don Pearson, regional president of Wells Fargo in Portland, rejects the notion that his industry is culpable for any of the nation's economic misfortunes. His bank is only lending money in part to help the community, he said.
Activists are betting that Americans, gripped by a level of economic insecurity unprecedented in recent times, take a dimmer view of the big banks. People who may have no sympathy for bedraggled protesters taking over a city park may well know someone who lost a home to foreclosure or a college grad who is looking for work, living with her parents and struggling to pay off student debt.
"The anger and outrage is something broadly shared by both the left and the right," said Angela Martin, an anti-foreclosure activist with a labor-backed group, Our Oregon.
The industry bashing comes at a time the financial sector is still trying to regain its footing after one of the greatest upheavals in American business history.
On Wall Street, some of the nation's biggest banks drove themselves to the brink of ruin selling and buying mortgage-backed securities of dubious value. At a local level, banks bet big on the housing market devoting huge shares of their loan portfolios to developers and builders.
Congress enabled it all by pushing the industry to make more mortgage loans to people of more meager financial means.
It all blew up in 2007 and 2008 when the housing boom turned to bust.
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen prevailed on Congress to approve an unprecedented bailout of the biggest banks. Hundreds of banks, including six in Oregon, failed.
Meanwhile, average citizens lost jobs, benefits, pensions and homes.
Three years since the economy hit bottom, the pain continues. The housing industry remains in the dump and the foreclosure crisis continues to haunt the economy. More than 38,000 Oregonians are currently in foreclosure or are late on their mortgage payments.
One in four homeowners – about 125,000 in all – owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, according to Economic Fairness Oregon.
It was against this backdrop that Bank of America instituted its disastrous $5 ATM fee last month, a move so widely condemned that the bank quickly reversed course.
"One of the things banks have done to themselves is to try to earn their income through penalties, fines and fees," said David Bennett, a spokesman with the Northwest Credit Union Association.
The credit union industry claims customers are voting with their feet, opening 700,000 new accounts, many of them since protesters first camped near Wall Street.
Another beneficiary is smaller, local banks. Umpqua Bank, Oregon's largest independent bank, said new account openings in the last two months were 20 percent more than the prior year.
Umpqua CEO Ray Davis said he found he had much in common when he met with two Occupy Portland protesters earlier this week. On issues central to Occupy's plank – income inequality, unemployment, even the irresponsibility of much of the financial industry – they were on the same page.
"The real protesters are good people," Davis said. "I told 'em, 'Look, the abuses and excesses that occurred on Wall Street, some of those things were obscene and no one is in favor of that. And then awarding these guys bonuses, that was just stupid. Bankers have to take responsibility for what they did.'"
For a bank CEO, Davis can sound downright populist at times. He told the Occupy protesters that besides griping about problems, they need to come up with solutions.
"The issue is what's their plan? I said, 'If you really want to change the system, run for office, get elected, make change... But I have to admit there are issues there. You've practically got to be a millionaire to get elected to Congress. How we finance campaigns in this country is a disaster. The rich win."
Davis said he told the protesters they are off base in condemning the entire financial industry. Community banks shouldn't be lumped in with the subprime lenders and financial hustlers that drove the U.S. economy off the rails, he said.
"You take subprime loans and things like credit swap defaults, 99 out of 100 community bankers wouldn't know what those are because they didn't sell them," Davis said.
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