Fair Finance Watch is a US-based

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

which investigates the banking industry's treatment of low-income communities around the world. It produces weekly reports on global banks like

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

Royal Bank of Scotland The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS; gd, Banca Rìoghail na h-Alba) is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest (in England and Wales) and Ulster Bank ...

Mizuho Financial Group , abbreviated as MHFG, or simply called Mizuho, is a banking holding company headquartered in the Ōtemachi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The name "" literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. Upon ...

and others. It was founded by lawyer Matthew Lee.

History

In 1998, Fair Finance Watch and its predecessors took the lead in opposing the merger of Citicorp and Travelers to form

. Founder Matthew Lee spoke at both companies' shareholders' meetings, commented to the

Federal Reserve Board The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, commonly known as the Federal Reserve Board, is the main governing body of the Federal Reserve System. It is charged with overseeing the Federal Reserve Banks and with helping implement the mon ...

, and later initiated litigation against the merger, the largest in the financial services industry. Since then, Fair Finance Watch has pursued Citigroup as it has made acquisitions in Mexico and elsewhere, while initiating similar campaigns regarding

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asse ...

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

and others. In 2000, Lee's investigation of the merger of US Bank and Firstar for his

Inner City Press Inner City Press is a public interest organization founded by Matthew Lee (lawyer), Matthew Lee, who serves as executive director. Inner City Press is best known for its investigations of the banking industry's treatment of low-income communities ...

was followed by a Federal Reserve Board inquiry into the banks' practices. In the Spring of 2013, in the US, Fair Finance Watch raised fair lending issues regarding

Investors Bank Investors Bank was a publicly traded, full-service bank that was based in Short Hills, New Jersey, USA. The bank operated over 150 branches across New Jersey and New York (state), New York. The bank operated from 1926 until 2022 as an independe ...

References

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External links

* {{official website, //www.fairfinancewatch.org/ Oversight and watchdog organizations Ethical banking