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Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Media Release  Friday, 25 July 2014

Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au
 

Tell Financial System Inquiry: NO to ‘bail-in’ of bank deposits!

The Citizens Electoral Council calls on all Australians who oppose the “bail-in” seizure of bank deposits to prop up too-big-to-fail banks, and instead support a Glass-Steagall separation of real banking from financial gambling, to make that loud and clear in a submission to Joe Hockey’s Financial System Inquiry.

The deadline for the second round of submissions to the FSI closes on 26 August; FSI chairman David Murray’s Interim Report released 16 July called for more submissions on the issue of too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banks, bail-in and alternatives including Glass-Steagall. Murray posed two questions for more discussion:

  1. Is it possible to reduce the perceptions of an implicit guarantee for systemic financial institutions [i.e. TBTF banks] by imposing losses on particular classes of creditors during a crisis, without causing greater systemic disruption?
  2. If so, what types of creditors are most likely to be able to bear losses?

Depositors are classified as “unsecured creditors” of a bank; if a bail-in law is passed, the unsecured creditors of a failing TBTF bank will be forced to wear its losses, so that the bank can stay afloat, and honour its gambling bets to its derivatives counterparties in other banks and thus avoid “greater systemic disruption”.

If enough Australians take the opportunity of this second round of the Financial System Inquiry to make personal submissions, it will send an emphatic message that cannot be ignored.

How to make a submission today

Write a submission, as long or as short as you like, that makes the basic points: you oppose the push for a bail-in law to prop up TBTF banks, and support a Glass-Steagall separation of banking instead. Then you have three options:

  1. Go to: http://fsi.gov.au/consultation/submissions/
    Fill in the fields; under the section “Which Interim Report observations or question are you responding to?” click on “Stability—addressing too-big-to-fail”; write a short summary; and attach a Word or similar file in which you’ve written and saved your statement.
  2. Email your submission to: fsi@fsi.gov.au
  3. Mail an actual letter to:
    Financial System Inquiry
    GPO Box 89
    Sydney NSW 2001

Please notify the CEC by email when you have made a submission. Thank you to those who have already notified us.

To find out more about Glass-Steagall for Australia, click here for a free copy of the CEC’s magazine, Glass-Steagall Now!

If you have already received a free offer, click here to purchase a copy ($25).

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The ALP, Liberals and Greens are ganging up to make it harder for other parties to contest elections, by tripling the membership requirement. If you support the CEC’s ideas, it is time to act by joining as an Associate Member for 1 year, so the CEC can remain registered. Click here to join the CEC as a member.

Click here to refer others to receive regular email updates from the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia.




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