Banks are not your friend.

• Position: Letters to the Editor - Letter to the editor

Thanks for a wonderful interview with a woman I admire greatly (Interview with Elizabeth Warren, by Ruth Conniff, December 2009/January 2010).

On the topic of "banks are not your friends," I should like to add a comment on a relatively new development that I find both offensive and a bit alarming. Some banks are starting to require binding arbitration agreements, with their choice of arbitrator, as a condition of doing business--not only on credit cards but also on deposit accounts, including CDs.

Think about that: They want you to give up your right to a jury trial, and other legal rights, on an account in which you are the lender, they the borrower, and on which there is usually no activity apart from interest payments between opening and maturity; rarely, circumstances may require early withdrawal, for which clear procedures and penalties are established. The only reason you would have to take a bank to court over a CD would be their failure to fulfill contractual obligations, either by paying less than the designated interest or by failing to return your money promptly when requested. So, in effect, they appear to be announcing their intent to breach their contractual obligations, and they want to ensure in advance that you will be deprived of the legal tools you need to recover what is rightfully yours.

The Federal Reserve tells me there is no law against this. There should be.

Katharine W. Rylaarsdam

via e-mail

I'm writing about Matthew Rothschild's editorial, "Beyond the Greed Economy" (December 2009/January 2010).

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