Occupy Wall St to launch debit card

TWO years ago Occupy Wall Street was a protest movement crying for the downfall of the financial system as we know it. Today it's a bank.

That's right, the group plans to launch its very own financial cooperative providing services to people who might otherwise be unable to get access, New York Magazine reported.

Occupy Wall Street was a peaceful protest movement that began in September 2011 following the global financial recession. The group's goal was the arrest and trial of the businessmen responsible for causing the Wall Street crash, to fight corporate America's influence over the political system and to address the massive disparities in wealth the world over.

Protesters of all ages camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York and refused to move until their issues were addressed. The movement sparked Occupy protests all over the world, including Australia. Of course this ended in tears and police brutality.

While the group was a powerful movement, it is largely seen as a failed one. It's failure is blamed largely on the group's lack of hierarchical structure, it's inability to focus on a single goal and its refusal to appoint a spokesperson.

This YouTube clip from Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom - while fictional - is a pretty comprehensive summary of everything that was wrong with the Occupy movement:

However three years later the group is trying to address its goals from another angle.

Instead of fighting against the system, the group is trying to work within it to the advantage of the most disenfranchised.

The group this week launched the Occupy Money Cooperative, which is a not-for-profit organisation that offers financial support and products to people who might otherwise not have access to them.

"We're like a bank, but better," the organisation says in an ad on YouTube.

"Like a bank your money will be insured, but unlike a bank you'll get a better deal because the cooperative is run by members which means we don't have to answer to Wall Street or profit hungry directors.

"We'll answer only to ourselves. We'll be in control of the products we offer, the way we operate, the future we create. And membership will be available to everybody, no matter where you live or how much you earn."

The first product the group plans to launch is a cheap, prepaid Occupy branded debit card.

The Occupy cards are free to set up, cost only 99 cents a month, cost $1.95 to withdraw money and 99 cents to check your bank balance.

Occupy critics will no doubt be pleased to see the group trying to change the system from within.

It's a pretty interesting concept that Occupy is toying with, and if it is successful it could potentially open up the floodgates for other not for profits to either get involved or launch their own financial services which would in turn allow the world's least wealthy people to move away from banks and lenders that have been bleeding them dry.

There's one catch.

The group says it needs to raise about $900,000 before it can start offering the debit cards.

"Please donate today and take part in the revolution that will make banking fair, transparent and affordable."

Ironically, the group plans to partner with one of the organisations it claims to despise - Visa - to turn this dream into a reality.

One of the members of the co-op Carne Ross told New York Magazine that the group "had no choice but to partner with that company or a similar one in order to produce a debit card that would be widely accepted".