Bank Accountability Campaign 2009 to 2010

Bank Accountability Campaign 2009 to 2010

Advocating for stronger, more effectively enforced accountability measures for Canada's big banks and other financial institutions

Back to Bank Accountability Campaign main page

Action Alert

Democracy Watch has produced the following documents in its Bank Accountability Campaign
(in reverse chronological order)

Please also view the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition (CCRC) website. The CCRC was organized and is coordinated by Democracy Watch and its partner organization, the Democracy Education Network. The CCRC was launched in December 1996, and since then Democracy Watch has done almost all of its bank accountability work in conjunction with the CCRC.

NEWS RELEASE: Federal Government Action Needed to Ensure Big Bank Profits Not Based on Gouging -- Comprehensive Audits, and New Financial Consumer Watchdog Groups Needed For Effective Bank and Financial Services Industry Accountability (December 8, 2010)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch calls on New Brunswick government to enact measures to encourage bank lending to business in province (Telegraph Journal and NB Business Report, December 1, 2010)
NEWS RELEASE: Financial Literacy Task Force Must Recommend New National Financial Consumer Group: Lowest-cost, most effective way to educate and empower financial consumers (November 3, 2010)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Canadian Banking Ombudsman (created because of pressure from CCRC) to investigate pattern of mentally disabled bank customers being ripped off (Globe and Mail, September 24, 2010)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Governments must require banks they do business with to serve everyone fairly and well (NOW Magazine, May 27, 2010)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Task Force on Financial Literacy must recommend creation of financial industry citzen watchdog group, and bank regulation, to be effective (Toronto Star, December 24, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Democracy Watch and the CCRC call for an audit of excessive bank profits (CBC.ca, December 9, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Big Banks Profit From Subsidies and Government Inaction on Gouging and Financial Consumer Empowerment -- Comprehensive Audits, and New Financial Consumer Watchdog Groups Needed For Effective Bank and Financial Services Industry Accountability (CCRC News Release, December 8, 2009) -- To hear related radio interview, click here (NOTE: The piece starts starts at the 5:25 min. mark of the show, and ends at the 16:45 min. mark of the show)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Conservatives' Proposed White-Collar Crime Measures Too Little, Too Late to Protect Investors and Consumers -- U.S. Experience Shows Two New Citizen Watchdog Groups Needed For Effective Corporate Accountability (October 21, 2009)
OP-ED: It's our money, and so we should have a say in how banks and other financial institutions use our money (Straight.com, October 15, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal government must set up financial consumer watchdog group to give consumers a place to call for financial advice and help (Canada.com (and 8 CanWest News Service newspapers, all publishing CanWest News article), June 23, 2009)
TESTIMONY: Duff Conacher on the need for an independent audit of bank profits and other key bank accountability measures before the Joint House of Commons Finance/Industry committees (June 2, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Conservatives' Proposed Credit Card Regulations Too Little, Too Late to Protect Finance Consumers From Being Gouged (VUE Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta weekly newspaper), May 28, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives' proposed credit card regulations too little, too late to protect financial consumers from gouging (National Post (Jonathan Chevreau's column), May 22, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservatives' proposed credit card regulations too little, too late to protect financial consumers from gouging (CBC.ca, May 22, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Conservatives' Proposed Credit Card Regulations Too Little, Too Late to Protect Finance Consumers From Being Gouged -- Comprehensive Audits, and New Financial Consumer Watchdog Groups, Needed For Effective Bank and Financial Services Industry Accountability (CCRC News Release, May 22, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Question remains whether federal Conservatives will take action to protect Canadians from credit-card gouging by the big banks and other companies (Toronto Star, May 16, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Coalition calls for government audit of banks credit card and overall lending practices (Canada.com, National Post and 2 other CanWest News Service newspapers, April 1-2, 2009) -- To see related article published on Canada.com and 12 other CanWest News Service newspapers across Canada, click here (April 2-3, 2009)
TESTIMONY: Duff Conacher on the need for an independent audit of bank profits and other key bank accountability measures before the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce (April 2, 2009)
RADIO INTERVIEW: Interview on CBC Radio's "As It Happens" show (March 30, 2009) with Democracy Watch Coordinator and Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition (CCRC) Chairperson Duff Conacher re: NEWS RELEASE: Coalition Calls on Federal Government to Get Tough on Unfair Bank Gouging and Cutting of Lending and Services -- Comprehensive Audits, and New Financial Consumer Watchdog Groups, Needed For Effective Bank and Financial Services Industry Accountability (March 4, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Coalition Calls on Federal Government to Get Tough on Unfair Bank Gouging and Cutting of Lending and Services -- Comprehensive Audits, and New Financial Consumer Watchdog Groups, Needed For Effective Bank and Financial Services Industry Accountability (CCRC News Release, March 4, 2009)
NEWS RELEASE: Federal Conservatives Continue Negligence of Federal Governments Over Past 20 Years By Giving Financial Institutions Billions But Doing Nothing to Stop Their Unfair Gouging and Cutting of Loans and Services -- Comprehensive Audits, and New Financial Consumer Watchdog Groups Needed For Effective Bank and Financial Services Industry Accountability (CCRC News Release, January 30, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Canada's big banks lobbying against possible audits to determine extent credit card customers are gouged (Canada.com and National Post, January 26, 2009)
TV FEATURE: Federal government has been negligent in not regulating credit card promotions and interest rates by banks and other companies (CBC TV's The National, January 7, 2009)
WEBSITE ARTICLE: Federal Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty must require banks to disclose loan applications, approvals and rejections to have effective bank accountability (CBC.ca and 28 other media outlets across Canada (all publishing Canadian Press wire article), January 5, 2009) -- To see CanWest News Service article on same subject published in the National Post and two other newspapers, click here