by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
FEDERAL COURT, Dec 18 – PayPal wants to open a bank - but it is trying to keep secret its Community Reinvestment Act plan.
On December 16 Fair Finance Watch commented against PalPal's proposal, to the FDIC (which is moving to cut out the public) and to the Utah Department of Financial Institution.
While the FDIC had not responded, two days later, the Utah agency sent the "public" portion of the application. But the CRA Plan was called "confidential." Inner City Press immediately sought it under FOIA / GRAMA:
On behalf of Fair Finance Watch and in my personal capacity, this is a request under the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act, §63-2-101 et seq., for a copy of PayPal Bank's Community Reinvestment Act plan. FFW is a timely commenter on the application, but just learned that the part it most wants to see, the CRA plan, is for some reason being withheld. What is PayPal ashamed of?
The Utah Government Records Access and Management Act requires that public records responses be made within at least 10 business days if the records are for individual purposes or within five business days if the record is meant to benefit the general public.
Before that, this comment (also to the FDIC) -
On behalf of Fair Finance Watch, this is a timely comment in opposition to the application to charter the proposed PayPal Bank Industrial Bank: Consider both the complaints about PayPal, and about the difficulty of complaining about or even to PayPal: "It was extremely difficult to close my Paypal account and Paypal Credit account even after I experienced fraud. Someone was charging the credit card connected to the Paypal account. Even though Paypal notified me of fraudulent activities, I got the run around when I requested to close both accounts. ... Paypal customer service? Customer Service does not exist except to make things even more complicated. So I am screwed, my friend is screwed and Paypal is richer by 750$…nice BTW, I am a 76 yr old disabled veteran living on social security…needed this $$ badly to survive…I guess Paypal needed it more. F%#* Paypal…
And, from the closing-down CFPB: "My PayPal account suffered account take over. Unfortunately the app or website doesnt allow to change tel numbers, information, removed stores cards etc. I submitted a claim onto PayPal, as I noticed an erroneous telephone number, I could not change that and/nor have heard back from PayPal. Since I suffered an account take cover and I reported this to PayPall, this should have been remediated immediately. Hasnt happened yet!" No public response https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints/search/detail/8234624 This is not a company that should be given a bank or ILC charter with no public benefit, no real CRA plan. Fair Finance Watch is hereby timely requesting public hearings, and that we be emailed a complete copy of the application.
On the current record, PayPal's proposal could not legitimately be approved.
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