As
M&T
- Wilmington Is Protested, Fed Asks On Bailout Funds, Not Fair Lending
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 9 -- More than a month after Fair Finance Watch filed
comments with the Federal Reserve Board opposing the proposal by
M&T
to acquire Wilmington Trust in Delaware, based on lending disparities
and (mis) use of public bailouts, the Fed has finally asked M&T a
series of questions including about bailout or TARP funds: “
Repayment of Trouble Asset Relief Program capital funding.”
In
a letter to M&T
and its lawyers which was e-mailed to FFW and Inner City
Press on
Wednesday, the Fed has asked:
Date:
Wed,
Mar 9, 2011 at 4:32 PM
Subject: M&T/Wilmington - request
for additional information
From: Jonah Trout | Bank Applications
Specialist | Federal Reserve Bank of New York
To: M&T, WLRK,
jawatiker@wlrk.com
Cc: mlee [at] innercitypress.org
Jeffrey,
Please
provide the following additional information related to the
applications filed by M&T Bank Corporation (“M&T”) to
acquire Wilmington Trust Corporation ("WT") (the “WT
Transaction”):
1)
In a email from Brian Yoshida to Ivan Hurwitz dated November
23, 2010, it was communicated that all of the assets and liabilities
of M&T Trust Company of Delaware, Wilmington, Delaware ("MTDE")
would be purchased and assumed by Wilmington Trust National
Association ("New WTNA," the resulting institution from the
merger of Wilmington Trust, FSB and M&T Bank, National
Association). However, in the additional information response dated
February 18, 2011, it was communicated that the capital stock of MTDE
would be acquired by New WTNA. Please confirm how MTDE will be
combined with New WTNA.
2)
Pro forma financial data (including tier 1 and total risk
based capital ratios and tier 1 leverage ratio) based on December 31,
2010 data, for M&T, Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company
("M&T
Bank"), and New WTNA that reflects any of the following, if
applicable, upon consummation of the WT Transaction:
a)
Repayment of Trouble Asset Relief Program capital funding;
b)
Common or preferred capital raise; and
c)
Down streaming of capital to M&T Bank or New WTNA, if any.
In
your
response, include a discussion of the assumptions utilized in
calculating the pro forma financial data and a timeline for when any
of the potential events discussed above will occur. Also, please
explain any significant difference between the risk based capital
ratios and tier 1 leverage ratio detailed in the pro forma financial
data and the data provided in the January 19, 2011 capital
presentation to this Reserve Bank (the “Capital Presentation”).
3)
Pro forma financial projections reflecting consummation of the
WT Transaction (including tier 1 and total risk based capital ratios
and tier 1 leverage ratio) based on December 31, 2010 data, for
M&T,
M&T Bank, and New WTNA that reflects any of the following, if
applicable:
a)
Repayment of Trouble Asset Relief Program capital funding;
b)
Common or preferred capital raise; and
c)
Down streaming of capital to M&T Bank or New WTNA, if any.
In
your
response, include a discussion of the assumptions utilized in
calculating the projected financial data and a timeline for when any
of the potential events discussed above will occur. Also, please
explain any significant difference between the risk based capital
ratios and tier 1 leverage ratio detailed in the projections and the
data provided in the Capital Presentation.
In
accordance
with application processing procedures, we would
appreciate a complete response to this request for additional
information by March 18, 2011. In addition, in responding restate the
questions above and provide a copy of the public portion of your
response to this request to: (a) Matthew Lee, Esq., Executive
Director of Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch, P.O. Box 580188,
Mount Carmel Station, The Bronx, New York 10458... Any information
for which you desire confidential treatment should be so labeled and
separately bound in accordance with 12 C.F.R. 261.15.
Ironically,
the
Federal Reserve is now resisting any connection between the
availability of information about the application under FOIA and its
time to receive comments and decide. FFW's initial comments included
FFW
is concerned by this proposal by M&T, a major recipient of US
taxpayers' bail-out money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to
acquire a key Delaware institution, Wilmington Trust Company.
At
this stage we point to M&T's lending record in its headquarters
city, Buffalo, where in 2009 M&T Bank (NY) denied the
conventional home purchase loan applications of African Americans
3.10 times more frequently than those of whites.
In
2009 in the New York City MSA, M&T Bank (NY) denied the refinance
loan applications of Hispanics 1.58 times more frequently than those
of whites.
In
2009 in Baltimore, another city M&T has entered via acquisition,
M&T Bank (NY) denied the conventional home purchase loan
applications of African Americans 1.88 times more frequently than
those of whites.
According
to the
Buffalo News, “M&T originally took $600 million in TARP money
in December 2008 but gained additional TARP funds when it bought
Provident Bankshares Corp. of Baltimore in 2009 and will gain another
$330 million from its pending purchase of Wilmington Trust Corp., for
a total of $1.08 billion.”
M&T
is racking up TARP bail out funds, but to what benefit of
communities?
And
that question
remains unanswered, at least until March 18. Watch this site.
* * *
As
Bloomberg's
Treasurer
Opposes Rating Banks, Chase & Goldman Slammed
By
Matthew
R.
Lee
LOWER
MANHATTAN,
March
7 -- Even after the financial industry meltdown
based on predatory lending, the Bloomberg administration in New York
City on March 7 publicly opposed a proposal local law that would rate
banks on community service before the City does business with them.
Bloomberg's
City
Treasurer
protested that “banks are heavily regulated,” despite
the finding that lack of regulation allowed banks, many based in New
York, to engage in Ponzi scheme like trading of predatory mortgages.
Next,
Bloomberg's
Treasurer
said that it would be hard to replace a bank if it were
disqualified. First, given Community Reinvestment Act grade inflation
at the federal and state level, disqualification of any large bank
would seem sadly unlikely.
Second,
it
emerged
that the City has qualified 35 banks, ranging from small banks like
Ridgewood Saving Bank up to Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Citibank, JPMorgan
Chase and “Goldman Sachs Bank,” of which Council member Leroy G.
Comrie asked, “I wonder why we are still doing business with them?
I don't understand, I would use stronger language but it's Monday
morning.”
HSBC,
it
has been
noted by Inner City Press, sold a stake to Liby's
Gaddafi; Deutsche
Bank is among the larger foreclosers, with little accountability.
Citigroup's predatory lending arm CitiFinancial is so disgraced it
has been renamed One Main and still can't be sold off.
The
Treasurer
devolved into claiming that only two or three banks can do the City's
business, although she didn't name them.
In hearing room, Al Vann et al listen to Bloomberg's
Treasurer (c) MRLee
There was talk of
layoffs in
the Department of Finance, and of DoF's Commissioner being required
to answer more questions on Thursday in “Emigrant Savings Bank, the
Council's temporary chambers.”
The bill was
not slated for a vote
at the hearing; there will be more on this, especially the national
implications, represented on Monday by NCRC.
Council
member
Gale
Brewer asked if the DoF's lobbyist would engage with national
groups around the federal Community Reinvestment Act. “I don't know
when CRA is up for renewal,” he replied.
As
the hearing
stretched on, more and more Council members came in, perhaps sensing
Bloomberg's weakness, ranging from Joel Rivera and Helen Foster of
The Bronx through Brad Lander to Lewis A. Fidler.
Member
Fernando
Cabrera
said that last night he went to a “nice Mexican
restaurant,” and found the Bloomberg administration's health
ratings useful. “But it would confuse consumers” when applied to
banks, Bloomberg's Treasurer said.
Al
Vann and
Domenic Recchia introduced the law, and Ricchia specifically
denounced JPMorgan Chase as not being willing to modify loans in New
York City. As Inner City Press came in to the drab hearing room, in
250 Broadway's 16th floor, another
attendee asked, “Is this the hearing about Chase Bank?”
Maybe.
* * *
As
JPM
Chase
Cuts
Off
UN Missions, US Says Bailed Out Banks
Are Free
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
13,
updated
-- When JPMorgan Chase wrote to countries'
Missions to the UN and told them accounts would be closed in March
2011, several countries complained, to the UN and to the “host
country,” the United States.
Thursday
US
Under
Secretary
of
State Patrick Kennedy came to the UN in New York to
speak to countries' Ambassadors about Chase's move. Afterwards, Inner
City Press asked Kennedy if he -- or Hillary Clinton or Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, both of whom Kennedy said were involved
-- had spoke with JPMorgan Chase.
"We
have had discussions with the major banks," Kennedy answered, later
confirming that yes, this
included Chase. But what was the response of Chase, whose CEO Jaime
Dimon is often rumored to be a line for an appointment by the Obama
administration?
Kennedy
told
the
press
that
“we cannot tell a bank what to do.” Inner City Press
immediately asked, What about the banks which took bailouts and still
owe TARP money to the US and its taxpayers? "Could the government use
its leverage?"
Kennedy said
he was not
“technically competent to get into that level of detail," and told
Inner
City Press to ask the Treasury Department official who had also come
to the UN. Video on Inner City Press YouTube channel here.
While
the
US
Mission
later
said this Treasury Deparment official was Mark Poncy of
the Office of Strategic Policy, Poncy never came to speak to the
Press.
Inner
City
Press
asked
Kennedy
if he thought the UN should go forward and re-rent
space inside the UN under its Capital Master Plan to JPMorgan Chase,
when this bank was turning its back on Missions of the countries
which make up the UN.
“Ask the UN,”
said Kennedy, who has responsibility at the State Department for
Management, including at the UN. At the US Mission to the UN in New
York, the Management position has remained with only an interim
person, the genial but part time Professor Joseph Melrose.
At
the UN's noon
briefing, Inner City Press did ask Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin
Nesirky if the UN would give space to JPMorgan Chase in the
Secretariat building when it re-opens.
“Ask Chase,”
Nesirky said. But Chase is already in talks with the UN as to which
space to get in the repaired building -- not, apparently, the fourth
floor space it previously had, but some other location.
Nesirky
now
said
that
he
would not comment on negotiations. But is Chase's closing of
UN Mission's accounts, Inner City Press asked, even part of the
negotiations? Nesirky seemed to say he would look into this.
JPMorgan
Chase
is
not
only
interested in re-entering the Secretariat building when it
re-opens: Chase also has a branch on the first floor of the DC-1
building which houses the UN Development Program. Many countries'
Missions to the UN opened accounts at Chase because they were thus
inside the UN. Will the UN allow this to continue?
At UN, Patrick Kennedy, spokesman Mark
Kornblau & Joseph Melrose: where's Chase?
After
the
meeting
with
Kennedy,
Inner City Press asked Iran's Permanent Representative
as he came out if he thought Chase should continue to remain in UN
buildings. No, the Ambassador said, UN space should go to banks
which will deal with UN Missions.
He spoke of
the UN Federal Credit
Union -- currently embroiled in a dispute about the account of the UN
Staff Union -- and was asked if the UN should withdraw its own funds
from a bank which in effect redlines Missions, like Chase.
Egypt's
Permanent
Representative
told
the
Press about “transfer fees” while
Turkey's Deputy Permanent Representative shrugged that “there are
Turkish banks in New York.”
Russian
Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin, asked in front of the Security
Council about JPMorgan Chase's move, laughed and said "the ruble is a
very strong currency," when you have the ruble you don't need anything
else. But the others? Watch this site.
Update
of
January
14,
2011: the following arrived:
From:
UN
Spokesperson
-
Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011
at 8:05 AM
Subject: Your questions on Chase Bank
To: Inner City
Press
We
can
say
the
following in reply to your questions at the noon
briefing:
Some
ambassadors
emerging
from
the US briefing about their accounts being
shuttered think the UN should withdraw all its accounts with Chase.
Has this been broached with the administration? Being weighed at all?
We
understand
that
this
was raised by one Member State delegate in the
briefing with Ambassador Kennedy. The UN Secretariat has not been
approached in this matter.
Will
Chase
open
an
office in the UN building after the CMP?
Under
the
CMP,
the
new UN building design includes space provision for
banks. No agreements have been entered into with any banks for this
space.
, 
