Against a backdrop of stepped up security, a well-organized demonstration failed to disrupt the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention in Chicago.
Protesters marched and chanted outside the Hyatt Regency hotel, and then moved down toward Michigan Avenue, the Second City's main shopping thoroughfare, where they met up with groups who were demonstrating at other sites.
But reminiscent of the MBA's convention two years ago in San Francisco, when several activists took the stage and interrupted the program, two protesters managed to make it inside the meeting, where they personally voiced their disapproval of lenders and how they are handling the mortgage crisis.
After patiently waiting to be called on during a question-and-answer session, P.L. Damon asked Michael Held, president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, "How can you show your face in this city?" Damon also wanted to know what Held is doing "to fix the colossal damage done to Chicago families?"
Then, an unidentified women asked Held, "Where is your moral compass?" and "How do you sleep at night?"
"I wish I had an answer to all of the market's woes. All we can do is keep trying," the Wells Fargo executive responded calmly to Damon.
Answering the second antagonist, he said that judging from the emotion in her voice, her question was a fair one. "We've made mistakes," he went on. "Clearly we have a responsibility, and we are doing an awful lot to help."
Convention goers in the room applauded both answers. But Damon, who told NMN that he "paid to get in just like everyone else," was "not at all satisfied” with Held's response.
The two protestors who aired their grievances were said to be part of a team of five planted inside the conference.
About an hour later, a crowd unofficially estimated at 300 by the police gathered in front of the convention hotel. Though their numbers were far short of the 1,500 that were expected, the protestors made plenty of noise.
The march was organized in part by National People Act and several local organizations in an effort "to take back the jobs, homes and schools stolen from us by the greed of big banks and big business."
The chanting protestors carried signs that said, among other things, "They get rich. We get foreclosed."
The initiative, according to the organizers, was part of the "Take Back Chicago" rally in which five separate feeder marches ended up at the Art Institute for a mass rally.
"We want relief for homeowners and everyday people damaged and destroyed by a crisis that was caused by big banks," said Tracey Van Slyke, co-director of New Bottom Line, one of the rally's organizers.
"I don't know what they get out of it," said Beatrice Lumpkin, a retired steel worker, about lenders who foreclose on borrowers whose houses are worth less than what they paid.
"What's the point?" asked the elderly sign carrier. "They're not going to get any more money back."
Among the protectors was Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. "I'm here to say what needs to be said," she told National Mortgage News.
"Ordinary people are seeing the American dream slip through their fingers and Wall Street is taking their money, our money. This is a Wall Street-made crisis. Banks we bailed out are not helping these people whatsoever. We want to see mortgage bankers take some responsibility."
MBA officials had been alerted to the demonstration and advised people to remain inside the hotel and not to "engage or confront" the protestors. "We believe in free speech," said MBA president David Stevens.
Later, the MBA issued a statement that said while the focus of the protest is about what isn't working, the estimated 3,300 mortgage bankers who came to Chicago are "working on building a safe and sound system" of support for homeownership and looking for solutions to the housing crisis.
"We all recognize that our industry faces a trust deficit with policymakers and the public and that people in our industry contributed to the events that led to the financial crisis," the statement said.
"The mortgage professionals who have gathered in Chicago this week are about sustainable homeownership and ensuring access to affordable mortgage credit for qualified borrowers."
