The Bank of America has joined MasterCard, PayPal, Visa and Swiss bank PostFinance in refusing to process transactions "of any type" that it believes is intended for Wikileaks. No word on what will form the basis for that belief. "This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments."
In a recent interview with Forbes magazine, Julian Assange stated that he planned to release information on a major bank early next year. It has been widely speculated in the US media that the bank in question is the Bank of America.
Both Visa and Mastercard are now facing legal action from Datacell, the IT company based in Switzerland and Iceland, that enables Wikileaks to accept credit and debit card donations. They could also have their operating licenses taken away in Iceland, according to members of the Icelandic Parliamentary General Committee.
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I am seeking evidence
I am seeking evidence of Bank of America refusing to process transactions believed intended for Wikileaks.
Googling I've been unable to locate any press release or official statement on the topic by a bank employee.
I bank at B of A. My branch manager has been unable to find any internal position on the topic. The internal support people she's spoken too think there is nothing to block such transactions.
Has *anyone* had their transaction blocked?
Tomorrow I will attempt donations to WL from my B of A account. But I see no way I could confirm success - after $ leave my account, how might I verify that WL has actually received them?
Anyone's donations actually blocked?
On Dec 7 2010 my last donation to WikiLeaks went through via VISA.
Earlier this week I sent (Bank of America!) checks off to 1) London for JA defense fund and 2) Melbourne for WikiLeaks.
There've been many media reports of VISA, MC, PayPal, and B of A stating they will be blocking donations to WikiLeaks. However, I've found no reports by individuals bitching that their donations did not go through. Perhaps some or all of the reports are intended only to reduce donations, and don't reflect actual blocking of donations(?)
If any of my donations are blocked I'll make an issue of it, both on the web and privately within the financial institution. Either nobody shares this attitude, or the blocking isn't happening. Or google is failing me?
There are mainstream reporters who'd be interested in this topic, but more is needed than one person's (my) experience. Any donors reading this are encouraged to comment, please.
cognitive dissonance
The CEO's office at B of A wrote me back confirming the reported policy. I hadn't expected to get that in writing.
And yet... one of my donation checks has cleared. In my case at least the policy is not in effect.
That is interesting! Thanks
That is interesting! Thanks for updating us PH.
It is not an issue today
It is not an issue today whether you are living frugally or not. Everybody is expected to cope up with the present economic crisis that we have. Most people are relying for payday loan when it comes on solving their financial problem. By the way, I heard that B of A won't transfer WikiLeaks any funds or process any funds to the organization. This might greatly affect the organization.