In 2013, Bank of America was fined $2.2 million after a judge found them guilty of racial discrimination in the hiring practices at their Charlotte, North Carolina offices. Over 1,100 African-American job seekers were denied due to what the judge called “unfair and inconsistent selection criteria” over the previous two decades. While a formal complaint about that discrimination was filed against BoA in 1997, more than 15 years of intentional stalling tactics delayed a resolution until after a number of information leaks revealed corrupt tactics in those same offices.
Hopefully, they’ve had a thorough house-cleaning. CEO Brian Moynihan, who was not implicated in the above corruption or discrimination even though he was in power at the time, announced in a press release on Tuesday, May 2nd, that Bank of America would be donating $1 billon over the next four years in channels meant to help address racial inequality.
Moynihan made a strong statement that the current unrest was in no small part due to “underlying economic and social disparities” having been made worse by the pandemic, which has has disproportionate impact on minorities in the United States. “We all need to do more,” he said.
The $250 million a year will be channeled into health services and small business support in communities of color, and BoA locations in those communities will be required to seek new employees from their neighborhoods. It is a massive expansion of BoA’s previous donations to nonprofits, and will expand their low-interest loans to small, minority-owned businesses.
While it is a generous donation program, Bank of America could certainly afford to do more. They reported revenue of $27.4 billion in 2019, as well as repurchases of $34 billion in shares. Perhaps they could donate a little more of the $1.9 billion tax refund they received in 2010, a year in which they paid no federal taxes.
Source: CNN
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