Return
to Current Issue
In
early October, NPA demanded a meeting with Robert Rubin, a top Citigroup
executive and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
In his place, Rubin sent out other Citigroup officials over a two-week
period in November. In two meetings, nine NPA leaders from seven cities
demanded three main things from Citigroup: (1) Ban all predatory lending
practices which have been widely used by The Associates and Citigroup's
existing subprime lending affiliates; (2) review and repair past subprime
loans made by Citigroup and The Associates and repair the loans if they
are predatory; (3) make good, prime-rate loans across the country through
CitiFinancial (which, today, only pushes high-interest, subprime loans).
Despite all of the evidence that Citigroup and The Associates will continue
to target neighborhoods with predatory loans, federal banking regulators
including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation approved Citigroup's acquisition of The
Associates on November 30.
However, NPA does not approve of Citigroup becoming the world's biggest
and baddest predatory lender. NPA does not approve of a former public
servant, Robert Rubin, who is being pimped to make Citigroup look good.
Citigroup officials have refused to meet NPA's demands and Rubin has
refused to meet with NPA leadership. Robert Rubin makes about $50 million
a year. What Rubin and Citigroup must not know is that NPA always gets
their man.
Related Article: Groups
Take on World's Largest Loanshark
|