Saturday, May 4, 2024

After Being IDed As Shaky Regional UMB Bank Wants to Buy Heartland But Disparities


by Matthew R. Lee, Patreon Substack

SOUTH BRONX / SDNYMay 1 – When First Republic Bank failed / was given to JP Morgan Chase, a small list of other regional banks came into focus as in danger. Among them was UMB - a bank whose lending Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch had been scrutinizing. 

  Now UMB, paradoxically, is asking its regulators to allow it to expand, buying Denver-based Heartland. The application, Fair Finance Watch says, should not be approved.   In 2022, the most recent year for which Federal data is available, UMB Bank, N.A. made over 2000 mortgage loans to whites, and only 117 loans to African Americans.

 For every denial to an African American, it made only 2.02 loans. But for whites, for every denial it made 3.45 loans. It should be referred to DOJ.    

There is litigation, there is also this, reported at the time of Silicon Valley Bank's failure: "UMB Bank, a regional bank headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, and with branches across the Midwest, Southwest, and Western United States, has total assets of $38 billion and deposits totaling $32 billion, according to the FDIC. However, only 16% of deposits fall under the $250,000 FDIC insurance threshold, leaving 74.11% (equivalent to $28.36 billion) vulnerable to potential losses."   

Why would regulators even consider approving its expansion? Watch this site.

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