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By Matthew R. Lee, FOIA docs

NEW YORK CITY, March 14 – When BB&T announced a $66 billion proposal to take over Suntrust Bank, which would close a still undisclosed number of branches and extend BB&T disparate lending patterns, many linked it to deregulatory moves in Washington. Now two days after Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard was asked by Inner City Press about the Fed's lax review of previous mergers, including WSFS on which the Fed still hasn't ruled on the bank's withholding of information after rubber stamping the deal, the Fed has announced this: "The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Thursday announced that they will jointly hold two public meetings on the proposed merger of BB&T Corporation, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with SunTrust Banks, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia. As part of the proposal, BB&T would merge SunTrust Bank with and into its subsidiary state non-member bank, Branch Banking and Trust Company, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  The purpose of the meetings is to collect information relating to the convenience and needs of the communities to be served, including a review of the insured depository institutions' performance under the Community Reinvestment Act. The agencies also will consider and collect information on other factors relevant to making a decision on the application, including the effects of the proposal on the stability of the U.S. banking or financial system, the financial and managerial resources and future prospects of the companies, and competition in the relevant markets.  The first public meeting will be held:  Thursday, April 25 at 8:30 a.m., EDT Charlotte Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond 530 East Trade Street, Charlotte, North Carolina The second public meeting will be held:  Friday, May 3, at 8:30 a.m., EDT Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta 1000 Peachtree Street N.E., Atlanta, Georgia. All persons wishing to testify at the public meeting in Charlotte should submit a written request no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 15, 2019. A request to testify at the Charlotte public meeting may be sent by mail to: Matthew Martin, Vice President, Research Department, Microeconomics and Research Communications, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 530 East Trade Street, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28202; by online form at: the Charlotte Public Meeting Request Form; by e-mail to: publicmeeting.charlotte@rich.frb.org; or by facsimile: 704-358-2300.  All persons wishing to testify at the public meeting in Atlanta should submit a written request no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 23, 2019. A request to testify at the Atlanta public meeting may be sent by mail to: Karen Leone de Nie, Vice President Community and Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 1000 Peachtree Street N.E., Atlanta, Georgia, 30309; by online form at: Atlanta Public Meeting Request Form; by e-mail to: atlfedcomdev@atl.frb.org." Game on. The deregulatory moves  include an assault on the Community Reinvestment Act, being led by Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting, who while at OneWest Bank led a false commenting process to push through a merger with CIT Group. (Otting is trying to change the OCC's practices on FOIA fee waivers and is even refusing to consider comments on some Business Combinations. But this BB&T proposal will go to the Fed whose Jerome Powell has vowed, credibly or not, to conduct a full review. And so consider this:  BB&T has been ordered to return $5.2 million to investors, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, over charges it it acquired misled clients about the cost of advisory services.  The SEC said the firm that BB&T acquired with Susquehanna Bancshares, known then as Valley Forge Asset Management, misled about 1,200 clients into believing they were receiving full service brokerage services at a discount. We'll have more on this.

 Fair Finance Watch, which has been tracking BB&T as well as Otting's and the Federal Reserve's anti-CRA moves, finds that for example in the Atlanta Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2017 BB&T denied the home purchase mortgage applications of African Americans 2.2 times more frequently than whites, while making only 50 such loans to African Americans, and 23 to Latinos, compared to 458 to whites, all more disparate that other lenders in the market.

  While some portray the proposed merger as a fait accompli, the Fed and OCC must hold public comment periods and consider the banks' CRA records, even as they race to undermine the law. Inner City Press will submit requests under the Freedom of Information Act, as it has on OneWest - CIT and now for Otting's schedule as Comptroller.

On January 16 Inner City Press asked the OCC on the expedited basis for records to disclose Otting's meetings with the banking industry and others:  "Dear OCC FOIA Officer: Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch (ICP) makes this request for records pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, and OCC regulations. ICP requests copies of records sufficient to show all of Comptroller Otting's scheduled meetings, appointments, and scheduled events from the date he became Comptroller to the date of your response including but not limited to Outlook calendar entries and daily briefing books for Comptroller Otting on those dates... ICP requests that you expedite the processing of this request. There is media interest and there exist possible questions concerning the OCC's integrity, which affect public confidence. See e.g. this article and the CRA ANPR since." We'll have more on this.

 Bigger picture, or on the club BB&T is trying to join, Otting's OneWest colleague and now boss, US Treasury Department Steve Mnuchin on December 22 from Cabo called six big US banks: "Brian Moynihan, Bank of America; Michael Corbat, Citi; David Solomon, Goldman Sachs; Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase, James Gorman, Morgan Stanley; Tim Sloan, Wells Fargo. The CEOs confirmed that they have ample liquidity available for lending to consumer, business markets, and all other market operations...  Here are some of the documents, for (still) free download on Patreon.

 On October 1 Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch submitted the documents obtained under FOIA into the record before the OCC, stating that "These documents, which must be considered as part of this ANPR and any subsequent formal rulemaking, show that fraudulent comments supporting Otting's OneWest were submitted to the OCC - presumptively attributable to Otting.
The documents show that the OCC sought an explanation from Otting's / OneWest's outside counsel - and the OCC's and Justice Department's response to date reflect that no such explanation was ever provided. The OCC nevertheless approved the merger and even gave weight to the fraudulent comments. On this record we again insist that Otting be recused from this ANPR and any related rulemaking or proceedings. We have other substantive concerns about this ANPR but view the question of Mr Otting's recusal (and of with whom he has met, on which Inner City Press has another long-pending FOIA request) as threshold matter than must be addressed as quickly as possible."

 The FOIA document as provided by the OCC and US Department of Justice reflect that the OCC never followed up on its lone (and wan) question to Otting's counsel as Sullivan & Cromwell to explain the fraudulent comments. Nor did this counsel respond to questions from The Intercept's David Dayen, who reports: "AFTER A YEARLONG effort to obtain the information, which included ongoing litigation, the OCC made available 15 pages. They contain emails to and from David Finnegan, an OCC senior licensing analyst who was a point of contact for public comment on the merger.

Four individuals contended in emails to Finnegan that they never sent the comment letters supporting the merger. “This is to bring to your attention that I received an email from the office of OCC regarding a subject I am completely unaware of,” wrote one individual (the OCC redacted the emailers’ identifying information). “I DID NOT send the email below that you responded to. This is a fraudulent use of my email account.” The other three sent similar complaints.

The letter of support attributed to these individuals was identical to the letter posted at the OneWest Bank website.

Matthew Lee of Inner City Press expressed outrage at the fake comments. “There’s nothing more offensive of speech rights than artificially presenting someone as saying something you don’t believe,” Lee said. “You have the right to be silent. It’s so beyond the pale.”

FOIA Finds: OneWest CIT Ban... by on Scribd

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