UPI, June 30, 2009
Nine former Bank of America employees accused the bank of over-selling services to Hispanic clients to create financial chaos that would result in bank fees.
“We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn’t understand how to use them,” said former employee Gabby Ornelas of Landover Hills, Md.
Ornelas, who speaks Spanish, said she was specifically instructed to attend Hispanic gatherings, neighborhood stores and even child welfare centers to sign up customers.
“We were told to sign them up for multiple checking accounts, which they didn’t even need,” said former bank teller Ambar Sandoval of Los Angeles.
Bank spokeswoman Anne Pace said the group, backed by the Services Employees International Union, “misrepresent the bank’s relationship with its customers and its associates.”
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Original article
(Posted on July 1, 2009)
Comments
BofA discriminates against Hispanics? Every time I walked into one, almost everything in print was translated into Spanish, most of the models for posters and literature were Hispanic (most of the ones that weren’t Hispanic were black), and half the tellers are Hispanic. I would hate to see what BofA would be like if they weren’t discriminating against Hispanics.
Now a lawsuit to finnish the bank off would only be called justice, because BofA was a huge source of sub-prime loans.
I absolutely love it. The corporate geeks pushing multiculturalism in pursuit of their greedy ambitions are getting bitten by the very ones they hire and promote.
This is a great time in history to sit back and watch the paybacks unfold.
There is one fundamental rule in the commercial world;
‘Let the buyer beware’ & that goes for everyone including Hispanics, blacks, whites, pinks & other shades in between
This is what happens when they made it against the law TO discriminate. You have to hire those you do not want or need and they are known to find “racism” under every rock if it so benefits them and their selfish wants, meaning lawsuits.
BofA and every other bank has been over selling to customers for years, that’s what this whole economic crisis is all about. Has this idiot woman been living in a cave?
The fact that she was instructed to target hispanics may (and i’m just reaching here) have something to do with her being able to…. i don’t know … speak Spanish? Or is that to much of a stretch for her tiny Mexican mind?
Banks are notorious for discriminating in favor of Green. I think we need to put an end to all this Green Supremacy. Only when banks are finally in the RED will this nonsense stop.
If BofA hadn’t been eager to sell mortgages, credit cards, and checking accounts to Hispanics they’d have been sued for discrimination. BofA was giving mortgages to illegal immigrants. So frankly, I’m happy to see them get sued by their favorite ethnic group.
My local branch hired a few bi-lingual tellers. Next thing you know (seems like) every Hispanic in town is banking at my local Bank of America branch. Even the ones who don’t need service in Spanish (most of them seems like). That’s called racism when whites do it. Celebrating diversity, I suppose, otherwise.
I’m going to keep banking at Bank of America however. They gave me a credit card when no one else would.
” Bank spokeswoman Anne Pace said the group, backed by the Services Employees International Union, ( emphasis added) “misrepresent the bank’s relationship with its customers and its associates.” “
So SEIU is trying to unionize the bank tellers?
Bank of America started to litter the walls of branches a couple of years ago with Spanish posters urging Latinos to borrow.
I protested.
I was told to mind my own business.
I took my business to an English only bank.
I was delighted to learn that BOA took a bath last year when it acquired Merrill in the bloodbath on Wall St.
Vamos, BOA.
No doubt the Hispanics were an untapped, less-sophisticated pool of suckers. I have no sympathy for BoA exploiting such, Mexican or otherwise. May they get what’s coming to them.
Earlier this year we removed our money from BOA in favor of a local credit union, due to both its Hispandering and serious questions about its solvency (which might result in more & higher fees in the future). And the credit union does not litter its offices with Spanish-language brochures.
We were BOA customers solely by default anyway. When we moved to Florida in 1995, we opened an account at Barnett Bank, which later was bought out by NationsBank, which later merged with BOA. It would have been better for everyone had Barnett refused that buyout offer.
Strider:
Same thing in St. Louis: NationsBank bought out a perfectly good semi-large local bank called Boatmen’s, which was hardly right wing, but wasn’t left wing, either. Then BofA and Nations merged.
Can’t remember where I read it, or what city this BofA branch was, but this branch has all the literature and posters in English, Spanish AND Arabic, and a few of their tellers speak both Arabic and English. I don’t know for sure, but I would assume that branch offered non interest bearing accounts, as fundamentalist Islam forbids interest. Which complicates things when it comes to mortgages, but Minnesota has a way out:
http://countenance.wordpress.com/2009/03/03/oh-the-things-we-do-to-pander-to-our-minorities/
I tend to think that the worst of the financial crisis of over, but I’m still not sold on BofA’s healthy future. First, they were big into the subprime loans, and they bought the Merrill Lynch money pit.
One of my credit cards is from B of A. I HATE it!… and rarely use it, except as a back up. I must admit that in foreign situations it sometimes comes in handy. (Bank of AMERICA sounds impressive abroad.) They offer me a vast amount of credit, which I absolutely don’t need and don’t want. [This could be very bad if the card got lost or stolen.] They also send me incessant checks, which I don’t want, never use, and which could easily go astray into anyone else’s mail. It’s very annoying. I have long been tempted to cancel it. Every month I swear I will.
At one time, years ago, the Bank of America (when it was in California) was quite another thing — a reputable institution. That’s NOT what it is now. This pro-minority nonsense they are onto is just the last straw. Maybe this will be the month to say goodbye.
“”sighs in smug satisfaction”” the worm really does turn:)
GHW #15: I had a Bank of America credit card. I also got those checks in the mail, from them, too.
I never used those checks, and called and asked repeatedly to have them stop sending them to me. The last thing I would need is someone getting stray mail, as you stated, or stealing some mail, and getting these checks, and going on a Buying Bender.
When those checks arrived, I ran them threw the paper shredder in my Office.
I really had had enough of Bank of America, when I heard that they would be opening Accounts for Illegal Aliens, with those damned Matricular Cards from the Mexican Government.
That was all I needed to hear, and cancelled my card right away.
Now I am a Member of a Credit Union, which offers great service, excellent rates, low fees, if any at all, and convenient hours.
People would have to be nuts to continue Banking at a Commercial Bank, that has no interest in you at all. Just like the Politicians, what you want means nothing to them.
