Members

• Represents more than 90 companies in the 5.9 million-worker finance and insurance industry, including the nation's largest banks and insurance companies. FSR member companies have received an estimated $213.8 billion in taxpayer funds as a part of the bailout.
• The leadership of the FSR includes Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, U.S. Bank, State Farm Insurance, and Bank of New York Mellon Corporation.

Lobbying Expenditures

• $43.9 million from 2000-2008 ($22.4 million spent from 2006-2008).

Financial Services Industry Employment Practices

Worker pay

• The industry's median hourly wage for bank tellers is $11.01 per hour, or $22,901 annually, just above the federal poverty guidelines for a family of four.
• Bank tellers at BofA: $10.50;8 Chase: $10.42;9 Wells Fargo: $10.20

CEO pay

• FSR member companies including Bank of America have been criticized for awarding billions in bonuses after receiving taxpayer bailout money.
• JPMorgan Chase CEO: $27.8 million (1,283 times Chase teller median wage); BofA CEO: $24.8 million (1,138 times BofA teller median wage); Wells Fargo Chairman: $22.9 million (1,078 times Wells teller median wage).

Worker healthcare

• Workers at several leading FSR members lack affordable healthcare and are forced to rely on public health programs instead. BofA, Wachovia, U.S. Bank, State Farm Insurance, SunTrust, Regions Bank, and Citizens Financial have at different times had large numbers of employees enrolled in taxpayer-funded programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP.
• For BofA alone, the estimated cost to taxpayers is $50 million annually.

Layoffs

• FSR member companies such as Citigroup, BofA, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of New York Mellon, and Fidelity Investments have announced more than 100,000 job cuts since November 2008, including one of the largest layoffs in U.S. history.
• Between 2004 and 2008, 151,120 financial services workers filed unemployment claims following mass layoffs. Bank of America alone announced over 34,000 jobs between 2004 and the summer of 2008 as it shed workers following acquisitions.

Overtime violations

• Between 2000 and 2007, financial services companies failed to pay proper overtime to at least 31,000 workers, resulting in Department of Labor-administered settlements worth $59.4 million. Among the largest settlements: a $5.7 million deal at Wachovia and a $3.6 million deal at FSR Chairman-elect Richard Davis' U.S. Bancorp.
• In 2006, FSR members Citigroup and UBS settled class action lawsuits regarding overtime for up to $98 million and $89 million, respectively.

FSR Lobbying on Employment, Taxpayer, and Consumer Practices

Opposes the Employee Free Choice Act

The measure would make it easier for workers to bargain with the employers for better wages, benefits, and working conditions by ensuring that they can exercise a free choice to join together in a union without management interference or intimidation.

• The FSR lobbied against the Employee Free Choice Act in every quarter of 2008 and has made joining with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to defeat it a top priority for 2009.
• The FSR has invited Adam Putnam, a Republican spokesperson against the Employee Free Choice Act, to address its conference in March.

Opposes accountability for TARP recipients

• The FSR fought for the financial industry bailout and its members have benefited handsomely from taxpayer support, receiving over $213.8 billion in taxpayer funds.
• Yet the FSR has resisted calls for TARP recipients to limit executive compensation and accept new lobbying rules.

Opposes solutions to the housing crisis

• The FSR has fought common sense approaches to re-regulating the mortgage market and avoiding future meltdowns. The association has opposed reforms that protect borrowers from predatory lending practices, allow a judge to modify mortgages in bankruptcy and require the licensing of all mortgage brokers and loan officers.
• Prior to the crisis, the FSR sought rule changes which undermined existing state and federal predatory lending laws. Attorneys general from seven states charged that the new rules would create a "'race to the bottom'... at the expense of consumer protection."
• The FSR also fought legislation which would make Wall Street firms which packaged and sold mortgage-backed securities liable for illegal lending practices.

Opposes basic consumer protections

• As part of a long-standing, informal coalition opposed to further credit card regulation, the FSR has fought consumer-friendly legislation such as the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights. The law would have prohibit excessive fees, prevent arbitrary interest rate increases, and shield cardholders from misleading terms.
• The FSR also lobbied against the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would prohibit abusive private arbitration arrangements in consumer, employment and franchise agreements.

Pushes for social security privatization

• The FSR has long advocated Social Security privatization, in which Americans would privately invest some of their Social Security contributions (and pay financial services firms to manage their accounts).
• While the 2004 Republican Party platform promised investment options "with no risk to the investor," the current financial crisis demonstrates just how imperiled many retirement age Americans would be if their Social Security contributions were individually invested in the stock market.