Media Advisory/It's Time for Fair Banking in Canada: ACORN Canada and CUPW Come Together to Replace Predatory Lending with Postal Banking!

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 2, 2016) - On Thursday May 5 The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers are coming together to call on the Federal government to bring back postal banking and ensure that fair banking is a reality for low and moderate income Canadians.

A Fair Banking campaign backgrounder (clink link to view) recently released by ACORN Canada shows it's expensive to be poor in Canada. As mainstream banks leave lower income communities and deny its residents products and services to meet their needs, lower income Canadians are forced to depend on the predatory fringe financial sector that take their place.

"Payday lenders have moved in and filled the void left by banks in many communities, and people are being driven to payday lenders and installment loans when banks deny them basic banking services like overdraft protection, lines of credit and hold-free accounts," says ACORN Canada spokesperson Donna Borden. "As a result, predatory lenders are the only option for many people living pay-cheque to pay-cheque when their car breaks down or hours are cut."

On Thursday May 5, ACORN and CUPW members will be holding a National Day of Action with rallies planned in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver to say that low-income earners need a postal bank as an alternative to payday lenders.

"People need an alternative to payday lenders, somewhere they can go and not be gouged," said Mike Palecek, National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. "A postal bank could be that alternative."

CUPW and ACORN are calling on the government review of Canada Post to recommend the addition of financial and banking services at Canada Post, or at a minimum, a task force to determine how to deliver new financial and banking services through our postal service.

ACORN Canada - the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Canada - is among the nation's largest organizations of low- and moderate-income families, with over 80,000 members in more than 20 communities working together for social and economic justice.