The bank came under an intense public campaign for its relationship with CoreCivic and GEO who demanded that Citizens cut ties with the two companies. At least two city councils in New Jersey — Montclair and Jersey City — have voted to withdraw their money from Citizens if they did not cut ties with the private prison operators.
“Today’s announcement that Citizens Bank will exit its current lending relationships with private prison giants CoreCivic and The GEO Group is an important victory for the people who refused to let a major bank finance human suffering brought on by ICE detention activities of the current federal administration,” said the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, in a statement.
Later on they said they did this out of business reasons not because of public pressure so the headline isn’t true cause and effect. It’s possible they just didn’t want to say the protests were effective publically.
They don’t want to admit that the public has power, the shareholders wouldn’t like it.
They also don’t want the public getting the idea that they do have power so they have to downplay the publics real power.
