It’s a hard time out there with gestures broadly at everything. But this heartwarming story will restore your faith in humanity: Some leading members of the tight-knit financial community are helping a down-on-their-luck friend with $30 billion in mutual aid, deposited directly into their bank account.
Thursday, a circle of financially successful friends—Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo—each said they would give $5 billion to First Republic Bank, a small business with $271 billion in assets that was in danger of forever shutting its doors until their story went viral and the community rallied around them. Other philanthropic community members Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley gave $2.5 billion each. Even those who didn’t have as much to give made token contributions of $1 billion each to show their support. Every dollar counts!
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The community providing the mutual aid said they were upset that Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank— former cornerstones of the community who provided loans to innovators and housing providers, respectively—were forced to close their doors during these hard times. In providing this impromptu social safety net to protect the most vulnerable members of their community, they said they would stand beside each other when the going gets tough:
“America’s financial system is among the best in the world, and America’s banks—large, midsize, and community banks— do an extraordinary job serving the banking needs of their unique customers and communities,” the banks said in a statement announcing the inspiring move. “Recent events did nothing to change this.”
“Together, we are deploying our financial strength and liquidity into the larger system, where it is needed the most,” they added.
Together, this community has also shown the power of collective action by fighting against red tape that hamstrings hard-working speculative investors and against draconian government rules that would require the “taxation” of large corporations and the wealthy.
