All the large banks in Texas either went bust or were acquired as distressed properties during the savings and loan crisis.

Those bank headquarter towers in downtown Houston and Dallas now bear the names of banks headquartered in Charlotte, San Francisco or New York.

I believe it moved headquarters from Detroit to Dallas in 2007 or so.

has its account there. Just saying to add info.

The transfers to your account are by electronic messages through the payment clearing and settlement networks between the banks.

actual money in that bank? Then why didn't they use a bank in my state?

In which case Comerica has opened an account for the debit card that is essentially like a checking account without checks. Plus, the debit card may have restrictions on use and doesn't allow overdrafts, etc. that a normal checking account debit card might allow.

Monthly SSA provides an instruction to the US Treasury which sends it to the Fed of NY to transfer an amount of money equal to your benefits to your account at Comerica. As you use the debit card, the funds in the account are drawn down.

SSA contracts with Comerica to provide these "benefits pre-paid debit cards".

The other GoDirect possibility would be for SSA to have NY Fed send your benefit money to a checking or savings account that you opened at a bank or credit union, which could be a local one.

When they do get convicted in court, the penalty is usually a fine that merely equals a tax on ill-gotten-gains.
Just think if three-strikes-you're-out laws applied to big banks and corporations: their size and longevity would guarantee that sooner or later they couldn't afford another conviction, and thence well behaved!
It would make breaking up very attractive, or it would get three-strikes laws thrown out; either way, good.

Now you've done it

Our overlords are not going to be happy seeing the truth printed. Hope he has good life insurance.

/sarcasm

Either something's painfully obvious, or the first flight of pigs is on the taxiway.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314

no sarcasm intended - too big to fail is too big to exist...

yup

The President told him to draw up plans to break up Citi right after he first took office, and Geithner ignored him.

I used a local bank in CT for 20 yrs., which was recently taken over by "Union Savings Bank." Found out this is a subsidiary of Bank of America and now they're charging fees for no activity if you don't write a check or whatever in a month.

My stepson was the Head Teller at a local bank in Cleveland a couple of years ago, and within reach of a management position.

They instituted a new "inactivity" fee, and he noticed that a bunch of his elderly customers were about to get whacked with it. A fee, they really couldn't afford.

In his position, he had access to all of the accounts, and he transferred $0.05 from his account into each of their accounts, to avoid the fee.

They fired him faster than you can make change for a dollar. Now, he's a phone worker, elsewhere.

Check again. There are lots of "Union Savings" banks around the country, mostly unrelated to each other. It was a popular name at one time.

Good luck!

This is something OWS could latch onto with some sort of "break 'em up ourselves" movement. Encourage cities and individuals, as well as local businesses to "go local" with their banking to "break up the TBTF ourselves".

In our area, there are no locally-own banks, but there are a handful of TBTF. There are no credit unions, unless one drives 13+ miles to the next bigger town.

I drive 13 miles to work every day, but that's neither here nor there. If the credit union has "online banking" it can remove many of the reasons for ever going to the bank. I go once a month and I really don't "have" to do that, ATM's will handle 90% of it.

'Tis a sad statement though that the only institutions are TBTF. Strange economics.

Poor people likely don't have cars, or if they do, cannot afford to drive them. Presuming a mile can be walked in about 20 minutes, that's 3 mph. 13/3 ? 4+ hours. Walking to and back from your bank should take 8-9 hours of ones day?

My definition of local is within walking distance.

We do drive 13 miles, 26 miles round trip, once per month. Hopefully, we can get everything we need on that schedule, with the exceptions of fresh fruits and vegetables. There really isn't money for a new car, proper repair of the old car (love to get it painted, but not necessary to its function), or even the cost of gasoline.

If one needs to have a bank, it should be within a reasonable walking distance. I'm guessing that's very roughly a 1 mile radius, consuming less than 1 hour roundtrip for foot transport.

It is doubtful that future generations, the mass of people, will have much other than their feet to transport them from place to place.

We desperately need another Teddy Roosevelt ("The Trust Buster&quot to break up ALL the Too BIG Corporate entities,
and return to a system where Mom & Pop (Locally owned businesses) could compete with the Big Boxes on a level playing field.

When I was young (50s & 60s), an out-of-state corporation could NOT come into an area and undercut the local businesses.
At that time, small, locally owned businesses thrived in Small Town America,
and a dollar spent at those businesses circulated in the local economy.

Now, the only locally owned businesses surviving in small towns are Antique Dealers (Junk Stores), Beauty Parlors, and Funeral Homes.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
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Too Big To Fail is anti-competitive. Our system only works well if we have real competition in the business sector.

bank, the Bank of Richmondville. It has three branches and only here in Schoharie county. (Upstate NY). It is totally locally owned and does not farm out its mortgages. I have had an account for over 30 years and now that I'm retired my SSA is automatically deposited with them and since I'm over 60, I get free checking. I do a lot of my credit account payments by phone for free. The President of the Bank sits in front of me at church and the VP (retired, a woman) sits two pews in front of me. The current VP is another woman. A Progressive bank with roots in the local community. The second owner is in Ripley's as being the longest serving President of a bank (75 years) and he paid off all of our village's debts about 30 years ago. Donated a fire truck to the VFD and a swimming pool for the kids. That's because of purchasing IBM stock many years ago when it was only 25 cents a share.

... I agree with every sentiment expressed in this article re TBTF and I did years ago as did every other serious person on the planet.

I guess better late than never, not that any of this is going to happen.