SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- Millions of dollars are right now being moved from large banks that took bail out money to smaller, more local banks.
It's all part of an online grass roots campaign that has gained major momentum recently, and one Capital Region bank is reporting huge gains from the move.
The "Move Your Money" campaign was the brainchild of syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington and some of her colleagues at the Huffington Post. She called on people to take their money out of big banks, who she says sucked up our bailout money, and put it into local, community banks to help stabilize the whole financial system.
The Huffington group posted a video online, using the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life to liken the big banks with the film's predatory banker Mr. Potter and the community banks with honest banker George Bailey.
The video has spread like wildfire through social networking sites and helping smaller banks cash in.
Trustco Bank had 30 new accounts opened just Thursday, almost all of them new customers saying it was their way of 'fighting back' against larger banks like Citi and Chase.
NEWS10 is told one of those new accounts is seven figures.
Robert Leonard, a Trustco administrative vice president, says the trend is the same at their branches downstate in Westchester and in their Florida branch.
"Where the bigger banks' lost focus is, I don't think they knew what they were doing, as far as investing the money. They would do derivatives, all sorts of fancy investments trying to make the quick buck. What we do isn't exciting, it's boring, it's the same thing we've done it for 100 years, but it's worked," Leonard told NEWS10.
The "Move Your Money" campaign is not expected to put any larger banks out of business, but the thousands of people taking part say it's more about sending a message that they're fed up.
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