November 3, 2011; Source: Mercury News | Mike Fox, Sr., the 75-year-old beer magnate and philanthropist has announced that he will divest his personal and business accounts from Bank of America due to the bank’s egregious sluggishness in modifying home loans. “I’ve always had a great deal of interest in social and economic justice in everything I’ve done in the community for years,” comments Fox, who is working on the divestiture in coordination with the San Jose-based People Acting in Community Together, a multi-ethnic interfaith organization that has been working on bank accountability in the loan modification process. The transfer will take Fox six months, and will cost him $30,000.

Another PACT member, the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, in East San Jose, divested its $3 million bank account with Bank of America about three months ago, and Gina Gates, a PACT leader who belongs to the church, said the group is gratified by Fox’s move and hopes it is the first of many more such divestitures.

Fox’s announcement, of course, came on the eve of Bank Transfer Day (November 5th), the day that people were being urged to move their money out of banks deemed “too big to fail” into local community banks and credit unions.—Ruth McCambridge