by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SOUTH BRONX/Federal Court, July 9 – A proposed acquisition by First Community Bank of South Carolina of Signature Bank in Georgia after the proposed acquiring jumping the gun and pre-announcing the deal, has been followed by a challenge under the Community Reinvestment Act.
On August 15 Fair Finance Watch, after reviewing Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data of both banks from 2019 to 2024, filed a CRA challenge to the merger with the FDIC:
This is a first timely comment opposing the Applications of First Community Bank to acquire Signature Bank Fair Finance Watch has been tracking First Community Bank and finds it lending patterns, including in the newly released 2024 HMDA data not taken into account in CRA exams, troubling.
In South Carolina in 2024, First Community Bank marde 283 mortgage loans to whites, but only 20 to African Americans. This is out of keeping with the demographics of its footprint, and its competitors. Likewise its disparate denial rates: it denied three applications from African Americans, versus 20 originations - while denying only nine whites, compared to 283 loans to whites.
The disparities continue, on lower volume in North Carolina (1 loan to an African American and on denial; to whites 11 loans and NO denials) and in Georgia (three loans to every denial to African Americans, versus seven loans to every denied to whites).
To impose this record and his pattern to more in Georgia should not be permitted. There are obvious managerial issues, for example the "erroneously" sent out press release announcing the deal, before it was finalized - either a stock trading issue, or a lack of managerial resources, or both. Public evidentiary hearings are needed.
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