Father of Peace wrote:
> It is likely that Zions Bank has more mormon customers than
> any other bank. Even though the church sold it's majority interest
> in Zions Bank in 1960 it is still often called "The Lord's Bank".
> Does anyone know how many shares the church retains today?
Not I.
> The bank lost 23% of it stock value today and 3/4 of it's value
> over the last year. Is that having an adverse affect on the mormon
> members who bank or invest with Zions?
That should have no effect on those who deposit there (unless their
deposit exceeds the FDIC maximum). Deposits are insured by the feds
so even should the bank fail those people will get their money.
As for investing, I'm not sure if you mean investing in stock in that
bank or if the bank has a brokerage arm that helps customers invest
elsewhere. If the former, obviously those investors have taken
significant losses (which they may recoup if they hold on and the bank
recovers). If the latter, it depends on which stocks they bought and
how those stocks do. That's the way the stock market works.
> In looking around at the (extravagant) houses that my mormon
> neighbors have been building I'm wondering if the mortgage/banking
> crisis is expected to hit Zions bank hard?
I don't know how that particular bank processed its loans. However
you are correct that many church members ignore the advice of our
leaders and get in over their heads. We've had lots of instructions
in conference, the Ensign (including an article I wrote) etc. about
being careful with spending, investing, borrowing etc. Had the church
members just followed that advice they would have avoided most of the
mortgage problems and similar difficulties.
I wonder if that may be behind the last two first presidency messages
on following the prophets. The good advice was there but too many
ignored it.
To paraphrase something I heard in a different context: The words of
the prophets have largely not been tried and found wanting, they have
been found difficult and left untried.
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