SOUTH BRONX, May 9 – Capital One has applied to buy Discover, in an anticompetitive deal that should be rejected by regulators if they mean what they have been saying. After they applied late March 20, Inner City Press submitted a second Freedom of Information Act request to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
On March 3, days after the CFPB dropped its lawsuit against Capital One, the OCC suddenly declared Capital One "Outstanding" under the Community Reinvestment Act. Who's in the OCC's wallet, now?
[As of May 9, we can tell - the OCC's Weekly Bulletin of applications subject to public comment has not been updated since March - nothing in April, nor May so far: more than 40 days.]
Back on July 26, after a FOIA appeal - and after closing the public comment period - the OCC belatedly gave Inner City Press documents showing Capital One briefed the OCC on a "big" deal in November 2023; it was code named "Project Sirius."
Then overly chummy texts from Andy Navarrete, who testified at the public meeting, and Pient Tran to the OCC's Marci Heppner and others.
For example, Andy to Marci, sorry for the late ping, if Richard wanted to call, could you do a 1:1 Zoom at 7:30 [pm]. But of course. That and more now on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud here
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
