It's still too early to gauge how meaningful the Occupy Wall Street movement will ultimately prove.

Certainly, it is an expression of populist anger, but it's unclear how deep and lasting that anger will be. That it coincided with Bank of America's much-discussed debit card fee hike is certainly interesting, as it added some fuel to the fire. We do think that banks needs to take a close look at what's going on from a PR--not to mention safety--perspective.

The Mail Online--from across the pond--has aggregated some videos of the protests in bank branches in New York, California and in between (Missouri) that provides a flavor of the street level branch protests now going on. People are using Occupy Wall Street tactics to protest the fees, and the results have been combustible. No bank executive should want to see footage of physical conflict in the lobby of his bank. This is not good for the brand. So at a minimum, banks need to come up with a strategy for dealing with protests outside of banks.

Obviously, you cannot allow business to be disrupted. But you have to be aware of the potential for pushing the conflict onto the local news as well.

"Meanwhile, an offshoot movement called Bank Transfer Day appears to be gaining momentum. A statement on the movement's Facebook page encourages supporters to take a stand against big banks by removing their funds on November 5th."

How big a deal will this be? We'll just have to see. If the movement takes off, November 5 could be a long day.

For more:
- here's the article

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