Big banks should bring back U.S. jobs after tax cut: Brown

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, called on six major U.S. banks to use their windfalls from the tax cut law to bring jobs back to the U.S.

Citing a new report by the Communications Workers of America and the Committee for Better Banks, the Ohio Democrat said the nation’s largest banks had cut at least 8,000 jobs in the second half of 2017 while expanding call center functions overseas.

“Rather than use their massive tax windfalls to invest in American workers, big banks are instead using their tax cuts to line the pockets of top executives and shareholders after shipping U.S. jobs overseas and laying off American workers,” Brown said in a press release. “These banks need to provide Congress and the American people with detailed strategies on how their companies plan to reinvest in US workers and their communities.”

In his announcement, Brown pointed out instances where the six largest banks had eliminated call centers in the U.S., or opened up back office and call center functions overseas, while also increasing CEO pay and stock buybacks.

In letters to Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, Brown questioned whether most of their recent hiring was done in the U.S. and said that the banking sector had received “a huge gift” in the recent tax reform legislation. He also pointed out stock buybacks at each of the six banks and suggested those largely benefited the very wealthiest of the country.

“Instead of investing in your U.S. workforce, your bank seems to be using this golden age of profitability to further boost its stock price,” he wrote in those letters.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio
Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, questions witnesses during a confirmation hearing with Marvin Goodfriend, governor of the Federal Reserve nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. Goodfriend said he hoped to keep the U.S. central bank alert to future challenges while increasing transparency and accountability. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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