By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag
SOUTH BRONX / SDNY, May 25 – New York and Massachusetts are portrayed as diverse and progressive places. But their banks, not so much.
Consider for example today's proposed merger between Brookline Bank in Massachusetts and PCSB Bank in New York, with branches in Mount Vernon, Eastchester and elsewhere.
Bronx-based Inner City Press has long exposed redlining. Along with Fair Finance Watch it finds that in 2020, the most recent year for which Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data is publicly available, PCSB Bank in New York State made 79 loans to whites - and only seven to African America. The dollar volume difference is even worse, a twenty to one disparity.
So what is the lending record in Massachusetts of Brookline Bank, the proposed acquirer of PCSB?
Well, Brookline Bank in 2020 made 456 loans to whites and only FOUR to African Americans. Meanwhile it denied fully 11 applications from African Americans, and only 93 from whites.
This is a proposed merger that should and will be challenged under the Community Reinvestment Act to the regulators. In fact, if the regulators mean what they claim, this application should not even be filed. Watch this site.
***
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.
