by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
NASHVILLE, Nov 25 – Synovus Bank, with a track record of disparate lending and consumer complaints, aims to cash out and merge with Nashville-based Pinnacle.
But Pinnacle has its own disparities, and is under-regulated by the Tennessee Commissioner of Financial Institutions, who refuses to provide any documents to anyone but Tennessee "citizens" (not even those *in* Tennessee).
So Fair Finance Watch filed Community Reinvestment Act challenges with the Federal Reserve and the Georgia regulator (both have confirmed receipt and the Fed has sent to Pinnacle) as well as the recalcitrant Tennessee regulator, who refuses to give records or even confirm receipt of the challenge. Pinnacle has Tennessee in the palm of its hand, lock stock and barrel, regulator and media.
And now it has the Federal Reserve too, which on November 25 issued a rubber stamp approval, including that FFW "objected to the proposal, alleging that both Synovus Bank and Pinnacle Bank generally made proportionally fewer home loans to African American individuals as compared to white individuals in 2024
The Fed Order concedes as to FFW that "The data cited by this commenter corresponds to publicly available 2024 data reported by both Synovus Bank and Pinnacle Bank under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (“HMDA”), 12 U.S.C. § 2801 et seq." - but the Fed doesn't care about disparities. It continues: "This commenter also alleged that Pinnacle Bank denied home loan applications of African American individuals at a higher rate than those of white individuals." But the Fed still approved.
Back on October 9 the Fed asked Pinnacle nine multi-part questions, including "A copy of the CRA policy to be used by the combined organization or, if one is not available, a projected timeline for completion. 4. Discuss the combined organization’s plans to manage third party partnership compliance risk exposure, including, but not limited to, BHG Financial and GreenSky, LLC. a. Include in your discussion anticipated key leadership positions and any individuals identified to fill them; plans for reporting/Management" - full letter here.
From the comment: Dear Chair Powell and others in the FRS:
... Fair Finance Watch has reviewed the just-released 2024 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data of Synovus and finds that while it made 3.18 loans to whites for each denial to whites, it made only 1.7 loans to African Americans for each denial to African Americans.
Pinnacle is of even greater concern. In Virginia, where Pinnacle received a Low Satisfactory on the Lending Test in its most recently (May 2023) CRA performance evaluation, in 2024 it made 133 mortgage loans to whites, with 19 denials, but only 13 loans to African Americans, with fully eight denials...
This application should not be approved; particularly in light of the disparities, public evidentiary hearings are needed.
Watch this site.
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