Move Your Money: A New Year’s Resolution

Did you see Arianna Huffington’s post yesterday? She advocates moving money to small community banks during 2010. Here’s why:

The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster. In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout. But since April, the Big Four banks — JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo — all of which took billions in taxpayer money, have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion.

The Cheers approach?

Move assets to banks where everybody “knows your name?” I like the idea. If big banks focus on trading rather than lending, what’s the point of depositing money with them? Will the monster banks make loans when we need them?

I bank with one of the Big Four now. It charges fees that drive me crazy, like $25 to stop payment on checks. And different branch locations call me to compete for the same business. 2010 may be the right time to re-think my banking strategy. It makes me wonder:

What’s the cutoff point? When are banks too big to lend?

Norb Vonnegut