This makes absolute sense. Just like M&I Bank in Wisconsin if a bank is basically aligned against you why would you want to keep your money there?

The banks — Bank of America, PNC, Regions Bank, SunTrust and Wachovia — are each represented on the Florida Chamber’s board of directors. The chamber has pushed legislation now moving through the Florida Legislature that would prohibit state and local governments from collecting union dues through payroll deduction.

"Their businesses will not be effected by its outcome one bit, whether we collect dues or not," said Steve Clelland, president of the union representing Orlando firefighters. "This is meant to silence our political voices."

If you are in organized labor there is absolutely no reason to keep your money there. I realize it’s not really that practical or easy for some to change banks but if the larger institutions within labor did, this would send a message. There are millions of dollars to be lost by these banks.

Banking giant Wachovia Corp. will pay $160 million to settle a federal investigation into laundering of illegal drug profits through Mexican exchange houses in the largest case of its kind ever brought against a U.S. bank, prosecutors in Miami said Wednesday.

“This is historic,” acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman said. “There is no other case like this one anywhere.”

The probe, which began in 2005 when a Drug Enforcement Administration narcotics dog in Florida detected cocaine traces in an airplane, ultimately uncovered at least $110 million in drug profits laundered from Mexico through Wachovia. The total settlement includes forfeiture in that amount plus a $50 million fine.

via Wachovia Settles Money Laundering Case For $160M : NPR.

I’m sad that this is actually my bank! What kind of system do you have in place that would allow this to happen?

From there, investigators from the DEA, Internal Revenue Service and other agencies tracked billions of dollars in wire transfers, bulk cash shipments and other transactions from the Mexican exchanges through Wachovia. Many were considered suspicious, including such tactics as multiple round-number wire transfers on the same day for a single account; deposits of traveler’s checks with sequential numbers that contain unusual markings; and bulk cash transfers up to 50 percent larger than a customer had led Wachovia to expect.

Don’t they do security trainings with their employees? Of all the layers these transactions have to go through from the platform all the way to paperwork processing center–no one caught this?

Paulson gave Wells Fargo a tax break to purchase Wachovia. He circumvented Congress. Ten Wachovia executives walked away with parachutes equaling 98 million dollars. Basically any big bank that wants to buy a small bank will now have an even larger incentive to do so.