By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
SOUTH BRONX, Nov 20 – Virginia and Delaware portrayed as diverse and ever progressive places. But their banks, not so much.
Consider for example the proposed acquisition by Viriginia-based Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Company of Summit Community Bank. Despite a showing of disparities at Burke & Herbert even worse than at Linkbank, which the FDIC imposed a condition on, Burke on November 15 issued a vacuous response. They drop an ad-hominen footnote which ignores that the evidence put forward in a litigation survives the suit's withdrawal.
On November 20, the FDIC overruled Burke & Herbert's position: "
Matthew Lee, Esquire Executive Director Inner City Press/Fair Finance Watch P.O. Box 20047 New York, New York 10017 Dear Mr. Lee: We received your e-mail dated November 10, 2023, regarding the application for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company to merge with FNCB Bank. We reviewed your correspondence in accordance with the guidelines of 12 C.F.R. Section 303.2(c) and 303.2(l), and we consider it a protest... Any future comments should be sent to the applicant and to this office."
Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch have long exposed redlining - and in this vein, on October 28 they filed a Community Reinvestment Act challenge with the FDIC:
"In Virginia in 2022, Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Company made 104 mortgage loans to whites, but only 12 to African Americans. This is out of keeping with the demographics of its footprint, and its competitors.
Beyond Virginia, Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Company is scarcely better. In 2022, Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Company overall made 119 mortgage loans to whites, but only 16 to African Americans.
Summit Community Bank is also of concern. In West Virginia in 2022 it made 403 mortgage loans to whites, and only EIGHT to African Americans. Meanwhile it denied 3 applications from African Americans, and only 97 from whites (compared to 403 originations). This is disparate, and more disparate both than the aggregate in West Virginia.
And that's not even getting into Burke & Herbert's overdraft fee abuses. More on that to follow - more than conditions, this application should be denied.
In October, after a similar challenge by Fair Finance Watch on data and complaints not even as bad, the FDIC required from LINKBANK a plan to improve its lending to African Americans, which Inner City Press has published on its DocumentCloud here.
If the regulators at the FDIC means what they claim, including in the new CRA regulation, this application should be denied. Watch this site.
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