Occupy Providence rallies against BofA

POVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Occupy Providence played a small part in a national movement Saturday, rallying outside Bank of America.

A group of 75 protesters marched from Burnside Park down Atwells Avenue to a local Bank of America branch, urging customers to close their accounts.

It's all part of a grassroots movement called "Bank Transfer Day", which called on bank customers to close their accounts with big financial institutions, and move their money to smaller community banks and credit unions.

A Facebook group for the national day of action quickly grew to more than 50,000 supporters. In response to the massive outcry, Bank of America actually scrapped a plan to start charging customers a $5.00 monthly fee to use their debit cards.

It remains to be seen how many customers closed their accounts with some of the nation's largest banks. However, analysts say it is unlikely any closures on Saturday will make a significant dent with some of the financial industry's leading companies.