As
Fed
Approves
Bank
of Montreal-M&I, Ignores FOIA & CRA, Capital One
Looms
By
Matthew
R.
Lee
NEW
YORK,
June
20,
updated -- Six
months after Bank of Montreal announced a
proposal to acquire Milwaukee based M&I, the Federal Reserve on
Monday evening called Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch to say
that the Fed had just approved the merger.
Fair
Finance
Watch,
along
with groups in the Midwest and NCRC, challenged
the
merger
earlier
in the year, and the Fed asked the two banks
questions. But Bank on Montreal withheld the major of its responses
on fair lending and Community Reinvestment Act compliance. Click
here to view.
Inner City
Press made a Freedom of Information Act filing, but inexplicably the
Fed has not even ruled on the withholdings before approving Bank of
Montreal's applications.
Inner
City
Press noted to the Fed that the official whom Bank of Montreal has
assigned to merger integration, Cecily Mistarz, was previously in
charge of strategy for “Harris Private Bank," described by market news
source SNL Financial as "a unit that provides
wealth management services to affluent individuals and families” --
giving rise to concerns that if run by Bank of Montreal, the
resulting bank would turn away from low and moderate income
communities.
Last
week
a
number
of Wall Street stock analysts called Inner City Press to inquire into
the status of the challenges, and into a public hearing by a
Wisconsin legislator scheduled for June 21 in Milwaukee. One of these
analysts pointed out that Bank of Montreal says it will close by the
end of July -- contrasted to Comerica, which said it would consummate
its still unapproved and FFW challenged acquisition of Sterling
Bancshares by the end of June,
now impossible.
The banks' logos, withholding of basic information not shown
Even
these
analysts
expected
the Federal Reserve, which declined to hold a
public hearing on Bank of Montreal's applications, to not approve
Bank of Montreal's application until after reviewing testimony at
this June 21 hearing. But the Fed has thumbed its nose at the public,
at the Freedom of Information and Community Reinvestment Acts, just
as it allowed large banks to cause the worldwide financial crisis.
This
is
why
the
Federal Reserve is losing some of its oversight powers to the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Upcoming merger applications
include Capital One's proposal to acquire ING Direct -- internally
dubbed “Project Rose” by Capital One -- and PNC's just announced
proposal to acquire the US branches of Royal Bank of Canada. Capital
One has gone so far as to ignore the range of FHA lending accepted by
other comparable lenders, and is also eying HSBC's credit card
operations in the US. Watch this site.
, 
