Urgent Appeal to Representatives and Senators of the U.S. Congress

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Dear Honourable Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thousands of Australian citizens have joined a campaign to call on our Parliament to act for the Glass Steagall separation of banks in our country.

This campaign draws to the attention of our legislators the real threat facing our Australian banking system from the deepening global financial crisis; a crisis which puts at serious risk the bank deposits of the Australian people, and essential banking services for the real economy.

We have requested that our legislators take immediate action to protect deposits and normal commercial banking services, by enacting strict banking separation as did U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Glass-Steagall Act 1933.

The original Glass-Steagall Act split deposit-taking, standard commercial banks from Wall Street’s speculative investment banks, creating entirely separate entities under different roofs, thus successfully protecting the U.S. banking system until Glass-Steagall’s repeal in 1999.

We have asked our legislators to apply the Glass-Steagall principle to Australia through legislation to divide each of the four major banks into two parts: 1) normal commercial banks as per Glass-Steagall standards, and 2) institutions involved in investment banking and other forms of speculation. Banks that speculate will then do so with their own money and at their own peril, with no government protection whatsoever.

Therefore, we respectfully appeal to you to re-enact the banking separation of the original Glass Steagall Act, in the form of the HR 129 “Return to Prudent Banking Act” sponsored by Representatives Marcy Kaptur and Walter Jones.

Yours sincerely,
Craig Isherwood
National Secretary/Treasurer
Citizens Electoral Council of Australia