Bank Transfer Day, set for Nov. 5, is a national movement founded by small business owner Kristen Christian encouraging people to close their bank accounts and transfer their money to local credit unions.

According to the Bank Transfer Day facebook page, the movement was started as a response to corporate banks stating that starting in 2012, account holders with less than $20,000 in combined accounts will have to pay a monthly fee between $3 and $5 for each month that they use their debit card. According to CNN, after controversy spread over the new charges, many big banks dropped the idea to charge new fees, including Bank of America, SunTrust Bank and Regions Bank, the [article](http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/31/news/companies/suntrust_debit_card_fees/index.htm?iid=EL) stated.

The Bank Transfer Day movement is completely independent of the Occupy Wall Street movement and claims no ties to it.

“The Bank Transfer Day movement was neither inspired by, derived from, nor organized by the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Bank Transfer Day movement does not endorse any activities conducted by Occupy Wall Street,” the movement’s Facebook page stated.

Protesters from the Occupy COMO movement, including Dorothy Pittman, David Dollens, Mike Diel, Jacob Moor and Shannon Morris, said they support the Bank Transfer Day movement and it is something they would want to participate in and encourage others to participate in.

“It’s so simple,” Diel said. “It makes so much sense. The big store banks took our money and used it to move our factories overseas, break the unions and buy the government so the government would quit regulating them.”

Pittman reiterated the sentiment.

“Not to mention creditory lending,” Pittman said. “People foreclosed out of the houses and now the banks want to sue the people for the difference that they owe on their houses that they don’t even own or can’t live in anymore.”

Some MU students support the Bank Transfer Day movement, too.

“I would definitely participate in this,” freshman Kaylee King said.

King said she encourages other students to participate in the movement as well.

Sophomore Zac Wilson said Bank Transfer Day is not something he would participate in.

Mary Wilkerson, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Boone County National Bank, said it is hard to predict if people will transfer to Boone County from larger corporate banks.

“We certainly aren’t expecting a decrease,” Wilkerson said. “We are a community bank. And we hope that people know that we didn’t do any of that crazy stuff the corporate banks did.”

Wilkerson said that over the past few months, the bank has had new customers move from larger corporate banks like Bank of America, but it is not expecting a sudden influx of new customers in the coming week.

“We’re not extending our hours or increasing our staff or anything like that,” Wilkerson said.