By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
FEDERAL COURT / S Bronx, Feb 8 – Whether or not the U.S. Community Reinvestment Act will be again enforced until the new Administration and its regulators is an open questions.
On the 18th day of the new Administration, Fair Finance Watch with Inner City Press on the FOIA filed comments with the FDIC on a proposal by BancorpSouth to acquire FNS Bancshares in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.
The applicant BancorpSouth Bank - which jetisoned its bank holding company when its CRA performance became seen as so bad as to prohibit expansion - in Mississippi in 2019 made 3756 home loans to whites and only 768 to African Americans. Its denial rate for African Americans was TWICE AS HIGH as for whites.
BancorpSouth Bank in 2019 made 6 loans to whites for each denial to whites. It made three loans to African Americans for every denial to African Americans.
This is totally unacceptable.
So is this: In 2019 in Alabama, where BancorpSouth would presumably be closing branches, see below, it made 1567 loans to whites and only 328 loans to African Americans. In Georgia, into which it would be expanding but where it already made some disparate loans in 2019, it made 19 loans to whites and NONE to African Americans. In Tennessee in 2019, BancorpSouth Bank made 1701 loans to whites and only 402 loans to African Americans.
BancorpSouth would close branches: "12% of the FNS branches are within one mile of a BancorpSouth branch. Still, Milsaps said a 30% cost savings target is reasonable for BancorpSouth in the FNS deal" - inquiry and hearing into this are needed.
FFW and Inner City Press have been deeply concerned about the rush by the FDIC to rubber-stamp mergers by redliners. This has been killing the Community Reinvestment Act and we timely request public hearings. The hearings, and your review, should also address BancorpSouth's performance under the PPP program amid the pandemic, including these...
Previously, ICP protested the applications of BancorpSouth to merge with Ouachita Bancshares Corporation and thereby indirectly acquire Ouachita Independent Bank, and with Central Community Corporation, and thereby indirectly acquire First State Bank Central Texas, Austin, Texas. - based on racial discrimination in lending. Then: See, e.g., this. BancorpSouth's CEO said the company wanted to “alleviate... regulatory oversight,” and become the “only state-chartered bank not a part of the Federal Reserve system.”
The Fed's logic in extending a recent comment period due to Coronavirus must apply to this and other applications. These are litmus tests. Watch this site.
Meanwhile in Federal court, PNC Bank and its Midland Loan Services have been sued for usury, predatory lending and civil conspiracy, under New York and Federal law.
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