SOUTH BRONX, June 25 – 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 (and to the Federal Reserve).
On May 14 - still without providing FOIA documents - the OCC and Fed set a July 19 virtual public meeting.
On June 25 the OCC belatedly responded to Inner City Press' FOIA request - by withholding in full 185 pages. OCC FOIA production on DocumentCloud here. Inner City Press appealed.
The OCC put part of its application in its reading room. And it is an outrage, Capital One gaming the CRA system. For example "the Proposed Transaction would result in CONA establishing a new assessment area in Delaware, which will include all census tracts in Sussex County and seven contiguous census tracts in Kent County."
That for a nationwide card and subprime auto lender...
As documented by Fair Finance Watch, Discover Bank in 2022 denied mortgage loans application from African Americans more than twice as frequently as those of whites.
Previously, Inner City Press and NCRC challenged Capital One's acquisition of ING Direct, see here.This time, given the antitrust enforcement claims being made in DC, this proposal should be dead in the water. Watch this site.
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