Uh oh ... there goes the bank!
I'm none too happy about this. I bank(ed) at Hibernia because it was locally-owned, had much better service than other big banks, and it had a reputation for investing in the New Orleans community. Knowing how Capital One made it's money screwing people on credit cards (including me), I'm not very optimistic that it'll keep up the commitment to the local community. And besides, are we going to change the name of the Hibernia tower -- that beloved landmark of the New Orleans landscape, whose tower when lit was once used as an official lighthouse to aid river pilots navigate on the Mississippi -- to the Capital One tower? How obscene! The least Capital One could do is leave us with the familiar local name.
Nope, I don't like it one bit, so I'm pulling my money out of Hibernia Capital One this week in protest! BASTARDS!
4/10/06 update: So this is weird -- PGR got listed in the Capital One Google Finance page for this post.
4/11/06 update:
A select group of top executives, led by Richard Fairbank of Capital One Financial, earned $100 million or more last year, even after ten years of unprecedented CEO salary increases. (Fairbank earned $56 million in stock options alone.)
Hat tip: The Nuggery.
posted by Schroeder @ 8:29 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Whitney. That's about it.
I do wonder if the Patriot Act made this inevitable. Pre-Patriot Act, American banks could be incredibly sloppy. The U.S. was known as the haven for criminal and terrorist money.
Perhaps the one good aspect on the Patriot Act was that it required banks to keep good records. I'm not sure that a lot of local banks could afford the tech needed or change the culture to make it happened. I moved here about two years ago, right around the time when the Patriot Act went into effect. Hibernia did a terrible job, actually closing my accounts briefly so that I would contact them and provide info for Patriot Act compliance. Since they pulled this little trick while I was traveling, I was not too pleased.
Maybe they just had a rough transition, but having worked in a bank before I moved here it made me wonder if Hibernia wasn't up to the new standards.
I concur with anonymous, although Whitney sold my mortgage to some out-of-state-not-clue-one-about-Katrina mortgage company within minutes of my closing.
Ashley, actually, Hibernia did the same to me, after the loan officer swore up and down it "probably" would never happen. Sign of the (declining) times.
Post a Comment
<< Home