Preacher's push for community-oriented banking gets attention from Wall Street Journal columnist

Community banks have a new advocate, a type they probably didn't expect: a self-ordained street preacher who rails against the evils of consumerism and whose views got at least a temporary megaphone yesterday, a column in The Wall Street Journal.

In "Writing on the Wall," David Weidner tells about Billy Talen, the son of a small-town bank chairman who is running for mayor of New York: "In place of a system where big banks and corporations enter neighborhoods only to profit from them, Reverend Billy wants to empower small banks and credit unions that hold a stake in the communities they serve by offering incentives and making it harder for big finance to undercut local business. It's hard to argue against the system he envisions. Think for a moment about what community finance could mean for the nation: Neighborhood banks would lend to local businesses. Profits could stay in the community. Simply knowing who your customers are and living near them could bring common sense -- the most basic and sound form of risk management -- back to banking." (Read more)