As US Bank Regulators Exclude Public They Heard PNC and Zions now FFW on March 26

As US Bank Regulators Exclude Public They Heard PNC and Zions now FFW on March 26 by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack SDNY/SOUTH BRONX, Feb 19 – As US bank regulators loosen rules - including the FDIC moving to eliminate public comment altogether on branch expansion applications, and OCC to reduce them - now big banks are moving to get bigger, most recently PNC with FirstBank, and Fifth Third with Comerica.   The cynicism of the regulators is boundless. While the FDIC on September 16, 2025 closed its comment period on eliminating public notice and comment on branch applications, on September 9, 2025 this announcement: "Federal bank regulatory agencies will hold a hybrid public outreach meeting on October 30, 2025, in Kansas City, Missouri, as part of their review of regulations. The Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) requires" it. On October 21, as the OCC also moved to reduce public comment, Inner City Press checked the docket and found fraud-rocked Zions Bank to have urged loosening anti-redlinining rules. An individual, anonymous, commented against Zions. Since then, PNC and joined with, among others, Capital One, in commenting. Antitrust, anyone? Fair Finance Watch filed, beginning  "the OCC proposes to further speed up the public process - this while the OCC is now automatically denying Inner City Press' requests for expedited treatment of its FOIA requests for applications  It is now proposed that bank need not even apply. How is the public to get notice, and comment if necessary, if there is no information about the proposal?    See, American Banker, Sept 10, 2025, "The FDIC is taking the 'community' out of CRA enforcement," by Matthew R. Lee, here    On February 19, 2026 the Federal Reserve announced its own EGRPRA meeting in DC and virtual on March 26. Fair Finance Watch immediately signed up and when asked, summarized that it will raise CRA, FOIA non-compliance, merger rubberstamping and the conflict of interest raised by banks on the Federal Reserve Banks' board, SVP on FRBSF board (the Fed claims it has no records about this) and others. Meeting info online; 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. Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com SDNY Press Room 500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA Mail: Box 130222, Chinatown Station, NY NY 10013 Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540 Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.  Copyright 2006-2025 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com