Banks stand to make billions from the pandemic. How can that filter down to everyday Americans?

From Fortune Magazine:

At first glance, the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic mirrors the one following the subprime mortgage crisis that came to a head in 2008. 

Similar to the Great Recession, today unemployment has soared to double digits,more than 55 million have filed for jobless benefits, and nearly one out of three Americans has missed a housing payment. 

Unlike last decade’s crisis, when taxpayers bailed out the nation’s financial institutions to the tune of $498 billion, big banks today can support their employees and their customers in a way that brings our economy back up to speed.

In an ironic twist, banks actually stand to rake in billions in fees from distributing pandemic relief to small businesses and have beat earnings estimates, in large part thanks to capitalization requirements set by the Dodd-Frank Act, which marked its 10th anniversary in July. These same safeguards are now under attack by Senate Republicans, who are exploiting this crisis to quietly send us back to the days when big banks brazenly gambled with Americans’ savings.

But the gains made by the nation’s biggest banks during COVID-19 have not translated to gains for customers or employees. In fact, according to a new analysis by the Committee for Better Banks, the nation’s only independent organization of frontline bank workers, many of the country’s largest banks failed to support their customers and employees through the onset of the crisis. 

Read the full article here.