Financial Lawlessness Will Lead to Bankruptcy

Dear friends,

As our politicians sleep, bankers are stealing billions without fear of punishment. These are crimes anyone else would go to jail for. Let's wake up G20 leaders and call on them to stop the banking culture of crime with new regulations to clean up this toxic industry and end impunity. Click below to sign.

Banks are getting away with theft and fraud -- crimes the rest of us would go to jail for. A fresh Barclay's bank scandal has just been exposed with mountains of evidence of wrongdoing -- but not one person has been arrested and Barclay's Bank has been fined just a fraction of its £6 billion profits! An outcry now can toughen up banking laws and bring the banking menace to an end.

G20 leaders have announced that they want to pass real regulation that stops banking crimes, but they have yet to act. Still, the US has made key moves to close loopholes and there is an inquiry right now in the UK. We can ride this momentum and push all G20 leaders to pass tough bank crime laws now.

We have a chance to clean up this rotten industry -- and our jobs and future depend on it. The leaders of the 20 most powerful economies have already said they want tougher banking rules. Let's make those words mean something. Sign the petition below, and when we reach 1 million, we’ll deliver it to G20 leaders with a huge media storm:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bankers_behind_bars/?bWrujcb&v=15719

Once again, we're seeing bankers commit crimes sheltered from punishment, even though they destroy people's lives by forcing them out of homes and jobs. Four years of scandal after scandal has shown that the industry is perpetuating a toxic culture that puts greed and self-interest before what's good for the people.

Barclays was recently fined $450m, which is nothing compared to the money their questionable activities made them. When drug dealers are arrested, police seize their illegal money and all the possessions bought with it, why do bankers instead get big payouts and massive pensions?

Right now the punishments don't fit the crime and so law breaking is incentivised, but this could end if our politicians act boldly. Years ago they said the banks were too big to fail and poured trillions of our money to bailout the banks. Now they need to stop the criminal culture by making sure that this money is regulated, and that anyone who acts illegally faces the full extent of the law.

The US already introduced tougher measures in 2010 and a parliamentary inquiry is underway in the UK. The banks are feeling the heat, and now if we can use this momentum to hold all G20 leaders to account, we can win and finally clean criminals out of our banks. Sign the petition below:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/bankers_behind_bars/?bWrujcb&v=15719

The reckless, illegal and irresponsible behaviour of banks has caused an economic crisis around the world, leaving hundreds of millions of people affected. Today we can take the first step towards a true recovery by ending the criminal culture which has caused this disaster.

With hope,

Iain, Alex, Antonia, Giulia, Luis, Ricken and the entire Avaaz team