Going to the bank…
Tag: banks
Western governments are on the verge of introducing expiring money
The European Central Bank (ECB) is considering using negative interest rates, a tool that erodes the value of your money, as it introduces the digital euro — its central bank digital currency (CBDC).
This is according to Sarah Palurovic, the executive director of the Digital Euro Association (DEA) think tank.
During an appearance on the Poundcast podcast, Palurovic said that the ECB wants to “keep the possibility open for tiered remuneration” after it introduces the digital euro because the ECB wants to have “measures that incentivize or disincentivize people to hold more or less CBDCs.” She added that one of the measures the ECB is considering is negative interest rates.
Negative interest rates allow bureaucrat at central banks to choose a rate at which your money expires and punish those who save their money. For example, if they set a negative interest rate of -10%, you lose 10% of your money each year unless you spend it.
Silicon Valley Bank Collapse: Here’s Who Benefited From Their Executive, PAC Donations
Only 15 U.S. banks were deemed “too big to fail” and subjected to rigorous stress testing after the Great Recession.
Friday’s closure of the nation’s 16th largest bank demonstrates the Biden administration feels all banks are too big to fail.
Silicon Valley Bank last week announced it would issue billions in new stock to bolster its finances. That news prompted venture capital funds to tell their startups to yank their money from SVB. A classic bank run ensued, which regulators stopped by seizing control of the bank and placing it into receivership.
Fox Business further reported:
Silicon Valley Bank, the nation’s 16th-largest bank, failed Friday after depositors hurried to withdraw money amid anxiety over the bank’s health. It was the second-biggest bank failure in United States history after the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008.
The bank’s California executives and political action committee have propped up a handful of politicians in recent elections, which has primarily benefited Democrat lawmakers.
Greg Becker, the bank’s president and chief executive officer, cut two maximum checks totaling $5,800 to the campaigns of New York Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner during the 2022 midterm election cycle. The two Democrat senators are the only politicians Becker financially backed directly during the most recent cycle.
Becker also gave $2,500 to the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund in May last year. The New Democrat Coalition Action Fund sent $1 million in contributions to numerous Democrat politicians during the 2022 elections.
Becker’s most recent donations came on the heels of $5,600 he donated between President Biden’s 2020 campaign and victory fund.
Jeffrey Leerink, the chief executive officer of SVB Securities, donated $1,250 to Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Jake Auchincloss during the 2022 and 2020 elections.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Bank’s chief credit officer, Marc Cadieux, poured $250 into Biden’s campaign during the 2020 elections.
Senator Mark Kelly inquired about social media censorship to curb bank runs
On Sunday, while discussing the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in an emergency conference call led by Senate President Chuck Schumer, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) reportedly inquired about the possibility of censoring social media posts to avoid a bank run.
This information was reported by Republican House members who were also present on the call and heard by representatives of the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department, and the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
“Just got off of a zoom meeting with Fed, Treasury, FDIC, House, and Senate,” Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie tweeted. “A Democrat Senator essentially asked whether there was a program in place to censor information on social media that could lead to a run on the banks.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert also tweeted, “On a briefing with Biden Under Secretary of the Treasury Nellie Liang regarding the SVB [Silicon Valley Bank] BAILOUT they are working towards and a member asked if they were reaching out to Facebook and Twitter to monitor misinformation and ‘bad actors.’”
Journalist Uses AI Voice to Break into Own Bank Account
In a recent experiment, Vice.com writer Joseph Cox used an AI-generated voice to bypass Lloyds Bank security and access his account.
To achieve this, Cox used a free service of ElevenLabs, an AI-voice generation company that supplies voices for newsletters, books and videos.
Cox recorded five minutes of speech and uploaded it to ElevenLabs. After making some adjustments, such as having the AI read a longer body of text for a more natural cadence, the generated audio outmaneuvered Lloyds security.
“I couldn’t believe it had worked,” Cox wrote in his Vice article. “I had used an AI-powered replica of a voice to break into a bank account. After that, I accessed the account information, including balances and a list of recent transactions and transfers.”
Multiple United States and European banks use voice authentication to speed logins over the phone. While some banks claim that voice identification is comparable to a fingerprint, this experiment demonstrates that voice-based biometric security does not offer perfect protection.
ElevenLabs did not comment on the hack despite multiple requests, Cox says. However, in a previous statement, the firm’s co-founder, Mati Staniszewski, said new safeguards reduce misuse and support authorities in identifying those who break the law.
Discover To Begin Tracking Purchases At Gun Retailers Starting In April
One month ago, credit-card provider Discover Financial Services, issuer of the eponymous credit card, stunned markets when it unveiled in its latest forecast that it expects its 2023 charge off rate to more than double from the 2022 average, hitting a multi-year high and hinting that the US consumer was about to hit a brick wall
Last week, Discover decided to cement that not only would its charge off rate soar but it was about to lose millions of customers after it told Reuters that it would effectively oversee (i.e., spy on) its clients by allowing its network to track purchases at gun retailers come April, making it the first among its peers to publicly give a date for moving ahead with the initiative, which is aimed at helping authorities probe gun-related crimes.
Discover’s announcement came after the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which decides on the classification of merchant categories used by payment cards, approved in September the launch of a dedicated code for gun retailers.
Proponents of the move, almost exclusively Democratic politicians and gun control activists, say it will allow financial institutions to better assist authorities in investigating crimes involving gun violence in the United States. While the codes will not show specific items purchased, some Republican politicians have spoken out against the move, arguing it could violate the privacy of U.S. citizens lawfully buying guns.
Discover said it will include the new code in its next policy and product update to merchants and payment partners in April.
“We remain focused on continuing to protect and support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy of cardholders,” Discover said in its statement to Reuters.
Curiously, a Discover spokesperson said following the publication of the story that other payment network companies had already decided to implement the new code in April, and that Discover was following their lead. While the Discover spokesperson declined to name those peers, it means that any legal purchase of guns now triggers a whole array of red lights and ringing bells across the government which has taken its crusade against legal gun ownership and purchases to unprecedented levels in recent years, even as gun-related crime in such democrat-controlled cities as Chicago and Baltimore hits record highs every year.
Wells Fargo Cutting Home Loans to Whites, Will Focus On Lending To ‘Minorities’
Wells Fargo, the top mortgage lending institution in the U.S., announced its cutting home loan services to instead focus on select customers, namely “individuals and families in minority communities.”
The financial services company claimed the decision is based on market changes and a slowing economy, but that apparently isn’t stopping the company from woke virtue-signaling.
“We are making the decision to continue to reduce risk in the mortgage business by reducing its size and narrowing its focus,” Kleber Santos, CEO of Consumer Lending said in a press release, according to the New York Post.
Kristy Fercho, Well Fargo’s head of Home Lending and head of Diverse Segments, Representation and Inclusion, noted that the company instead will “expand” its operations to focus on minority borrowers.
“We will continue to expand our programs to reach more customers in underserved communities by leveraging our strong partnerships with the National Urban League, Unidos US and other non-profit organizations,” Fercho said.
“We also will hire additional mortgage consultants in communities of color,” she added.
The company will reportedly continue to cater to existing customers and “underserved communities.”
The Post also reported the company intends to “expand its retail team by focusing on existing bank customers and underserved communities, invest an additional $100 million to ‘advance racial equity in homeownership’ and deploying additional Home Mortgage Consultants in local minority communities.”
“The press release highlighted that $150 million will also be used to serve minority communities looking to refinance or buy a home, ‘helping more black and hispanic families achieve homeownership,’” The Post added.
This comes amid a general mortgage collapse as the Federal Reserve has been hiking interest rates over the last year to supposedly fight historic 40-year-high inflation.
Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along…
US Virgin Islands AG is FIRED just days after she sued JPMorgan Chase – accusing the bank of ‘pulling the levers’ in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes and ‘turning a blind eye’ as he abused minors at his villa
The attorney general of the US Virgin Islands has been fired by the territory’s governor just days after filing a lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase of ‘turning a blind eye’ to Jeffrey Epstein‘s prolific sex crimes.
USVI Governor Albert Bryan Jr confirmed in a statement on Sunday that he had ‘relieved Denise George of her duties as attorney general this weekend’ without offering further details.
George, who had served as the territory’s attorney general for four years, on Tuesday filed a massive lawsuit against JPMorgan, accusing the bank of ‘knowingly providing and pulling the levers through which [Epstein’s] recruiters and victims were paid.’
She did not warn Bryan of her intent to file the lawsuit, and the incident was the final straw in the governor’s increasingly frustrated relationship with her, the Virgin Islands Consortium reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Banks Might Start Closing Accounts Of Customers Who Buy Too Many Guns Or Too Much Ammo
For more than half-a-century, Uncle Sam has been giving banks the legal tools to snoop into the otherwise-private affairs of their customers. Now, they are monitoring the exercise of their Second Amendment rights.
Thanks to a recent move by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, headquartered in Switzerland), U.S. banks are starting to build databases on their customers’ purchases of firearms and ammunition. And, of course, they are ready and quite willing to share that information with federal law enforcement in the name of providing a public service to identify “mass shooters.”
This invasion of privacy began in earnest with enactment of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which mandated that banks assist federal law enforcement in uncovering, investigating, and ultimately prosecuting violations of federal law.
Banks have long complained about the burdens of compliance with the 1970 law and several related laws signed since then due to the multi-faceted regulations they spawned. But the trove of data these procedures have allowed banks to gather and database has more than paid for the costs of compliance.
These laws’ main focus, according to the Treasury Department, which has primary responsibility to their enforcement, has been money laundering. Over the years, however, the many-headed hydra we call the system now includes virtually any banking customer activity that a bank employee might consider to be suspicious. In fact, banks’ primary tool in this regard is a document called a “Suspicious Activity Report” or “SAR.”
Then there is the USA PATRIOT Act, passed in the immediate aftermath of the 911 attacks.
The vast reach of the Patriot Act has been a shot of adrenaline to bank “secrecy” laws, creating new sets of problems for banking customers, especially those who operate lawful businesses overseas or engage in transactions with foreign persons or businesses. Banks have at times decided it is easier to simply close down accounts of customers with overseas connections, rather than run the risk of coming under suspicion from Uncle Sam.
The paperwork required of any current or prospective customer of a financial services institution looking to borrow funds for a home, car, or other legal purpose, has ballooned since the Patriot Act’s passage.
As troublesome as this absurdly massive paperwork burden has become for homebuyers and vehicle purchasers, the banking sector is now zoning in on something far more problematic: customers’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights here at home.
Hellbound and Down 
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