New Project Helps Bank Workers Blow the Whistle on Corruption and Abuse

By Alexis Goldstein, Americans for Financial Reform

October marks the seven year anniversary of the passage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which bailed out the financial sector during the 2008 economic meltdown. Given that the nation’s biggest banks have only gotten larger since the financial crisis, accountability in the financial sector is more important than ever, and Wall Street’s employees can be a crucial part of making that happen. That’s why it is good news that an alliance of workers, advocates, and lawyers have come together to launch Whistleblow Wall Street, a new website that will make it easier to expose wrongdoing in the banking industry.

The website, which is a project of the economic justice non-profits The Other 98% and The Rules, aims to help bank employees learn about their rights as whistleblowers, find legal representation, and includes an encrypted secure drop to anonymously share information.

The 2010 Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act created new protections for whistleblowers, including prohibitions on retaliation. But even with these new safeguards, it can be hard to figure out what to do with information about misconduct. So as a part of the launch, the Government Accountability Project, a not-for-profit legal organization specializing in whistleblowing cases, has volunteered to help anyone who is considering blowing the whistle, or who has already blown the whistle and needs help because of reprisal.

To draw attention to the campaign, a series of billboards are going up throughout the financial district in New York encouraging Wall Street employees to blow the whistle on abuse and corruption in their firms, with the message “See Something? Do Something!”. In addition, members of the Committee for Better Banks – a coalition of bank workers, advocacy and labor organizations working to improve conditions in the financial industry – will be handing out leaflets at financial centers in New York City, Washington D.C., St. Louis, and Orlando.

Former CitiBank executive Richard Bowen, who himself blew the whistle on subprime mortgage fraud, has urged fellow financial sector employees to not give in to “fear or a misplaced sense of company loyalty,” but instead to “Please, say something! Show personal integrity and report behavior that may be harming others.” The Whistleblow Wall Street platform aims to empower workers like Bowen to speak up when they see wrong-doing, so they can be part of making sure that abuses like those that that led to the last crisis are not allowed to flourish unchecked.

Originally posted here.