by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY/SOUTH BRONX, Feb 2 – As US bank regulators loosen rules - including the FDIC moving to eliminate public comment altogether on branch expansion applications - more big banks are moving to get bigger.
And now Federal Reserve has twice rejected public comments opposing mergers, here Fifth Third's already sued Comerica proposal, citing the "reputation" of the submitter, see below.
The Fed approved the deal, despite 80 branch closing having been exposed. On January 23 Fair Finance Watch filed a timely "request for reconsideration" under the Fed's rules, noting Fifth Third's partner Brex is being bought by a purported competitor, Capital One.
On February 2, with no response at all from the Fed, the banks bragged they had closed the deal. This is a new low, even for the Fed.
Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch has written to the Board Secretary:
Yesterday Fair Finance Watch emailed a timely comment opposing Fifth Third / Comerica as we have always done - and got back this (which I'm glad we saw) "This is the mail system at host www2.webmail.pair.com. I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
"federalreserve.gov: Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to the sending MTA's poor reputation."
We ask that an explanation be provided - and that the Federal Reserve System check on this pending application and other applications, including going forward, that it has not rejected comments from the public. Awaiting Fed response, Matthew Lee, Esq., Executive Director, Fair Finance Watch / Inner City Press
On October 6, Fifth Third announced it will apply to buy damaged Comerica Bank. On October 8-9, it was opposed, to the Fed and OCC. On November 10, after a contemptuous response by Fifth Third's Kala Gibson, the fight was spread to five more states.
They all accepted the comments from Fair Finance Watch. But now the Federal Reserve no longer does. A FOIA request has been emailed to the Federal Reserve Board, along with a request for expedited processing as it impacts other pending merger applications.
The Fed never provided any documents about safeguards because they have no safeguards. They have set up a direct filing system for banks and ignore what the public and community groups send in. We'l have more on this.
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