On
Synovus - Cabela, Fed Rubber Stamps Despite "Confidential Matter," Cap One Scam
By Matthew R.
Lee, Full Doc on Patreon Here
NEW YORK,
September 6 – Two months after
Inner City Press reported
Capital One failing in its
proposal to acquire Cabela's
"World's Foremost Bank," a way
to try to avoid the regulators
and Capital One's Community
Reinvestment Act record
emerged. The scam involves
Synovus buying the bank then
passing one the credit card
receivables to Capital One,
while keeping the deposits, so
Capital One wouldn't be
reviewed under CRA. The Fair
Finance Watch has opposed
this, in a filing to the
Federal Reserve, below. And
the Federal Reserve has, with
all formality, informed Fair
Finance Watch and Inner City
Press of a July 21 meeting
with Synovus, to discuss a
"confidential supervisory
matter," Fed "memo to file, on
Patreon here.
But on September 6, covering
up the supervisory matter and
with Stanley Fischer leaving,
the Fed approved the deal,
stating among other things
that "Commenters
alleged that the proposal has
been structured to evade the
requirements of
the Bank Merger Act.
Commenters also object to the
involvement of Capital One
Bank
in the transaction, alleging
that Capital One Bank has
managerial weaknesses and
deficiencies in its compliance
and anti-money-laundering
programs. Capital One Bank is
a national bank; the Office of
the Comptroller of the
Currency (“OCC”), and not the
Board, determines whether a
combination resulting in a
national bank requires prior
approval under the Bank Merger
Act. The Board has consulted
with the OCC in
connection with this proposal
and understands that the OCC
does not object to
Capital One Bank’s acquisition
of the credit-card loans and
related assets and assumption
of nondeposit liabilities of
World’s Foremost Bank from
Synovus Bank."This transaction
is a fraud. We'll have more on
this.
Date: July 27,
2017
To: File
From: Federal Reserve staff
Subject: Telephone
Conversation with Clifford S.
Stanford, Esq. and Synovus
Bank Representatives re:
Application by Synovus
Bank to Acquire Substantially
All of the Assets and
Liabilities of World’s
Foremost Bank
On July 21, 2017,
staff of the Board of
Governors of the Federal
Reserve System (Alison Thro,
Jon Stoloff, Andrew Hartlage,
Brian Phillips, Betsy
HowesBean, and Donald
Arrington) and the Federal
Reserve Bank of Atlanta
(Jordan Light, Juan Sanchez,
Sabrina Francis, Dwight
Blackwood, Steve Wise, and
Kathryn Hinton) had a
telephone conversation with
representatives of Synovus
Bank (Kessel Stelling, Kevin
Blair, Mary Maurice Young, and
Allan E. Kamensky), Columbus,
Georgia, and Clifford S.
Stanford and Mark Kanaly,
counsel for Synovus Bank, in
connection with the
application filed by Synovus
Bank to acquire substantially
all of assets and liabilities
of
World’s Foremost Bank, Sidney,
Nebraska, pursuant to section
18(c) of the Federal Deposit
Insurance Act.
Staff discussed a
confidential supervisory
matter with Mr. Stanford and
the Synovus Bank
representatives." See here.
FFW's
protest: "On behalf of
Inner City Press / Fair
Finance Watch (FFW), this is a
timely first comment opposing
and requesting an extension of
the FRS' public comment period
on the Application by Synovus
- and, we contend, CAPITAL ONE
NA, to acquire the “WORLD'S
FOREMOST BANK.”This comment is
timely. For the record, there
was initially filed with the
OCC an application by Capital
One to buy this “Foremost
Bank.” When the compliance
problems of that proposal
became clear, this sham
transaction was devised: for
Synovus (also dubious) to make
the initial acquistion, and
then pass much of it on to
Capital One, thereby evading
review of Capital One,
including but not limited to
CRA review. This should not be
countenanced. This
applications is not even
listed in the FRB's H2A, but
only the H2, thusly: “* 18C
Not applicable Synovus Bank,
Columbus, Georgia, to acquire
05/19/2017 certain assets and
to assume the deposits of
World's Foremost Bank Sidney,
Nebraska” It does not mention
the role of Capital One. In
the New York City MSA in 2015,
the most recent year for which
HMDA data is available, for
conventional home purchase
loans Capital One denied the
applications of whites 23% of
the time, while denying
African Africans fully 45% of
the time, and Latinos even
more, 46% of the time. This is
unacceptable.
Meanwhile, Capital One is
“closing branches in Laurel,
Gaithersburg, Frederick and
Merrifield.”
As to Synovus' Bank, in 2015
in the Atlanta GA MSA it made
53 home purchase loans to
whites and only seven to
African Americans, NONE to
Latinos. In the Birmingham
Alabama MSA it made 45 home
purchase loans to whites and
only three to African
Americans. If the bank cites
Synovus Mortgage, note that in
the Charlotte NC MSA in 2015
for home purchase loans, it
lend to whites but not African
Americans much less Latinos.
Fair Finance Watch will submit
further comments in the
extended comment period. On
the current record, the
application(s) should be
denied."
In December
it was Astoria's proposed take
over by NY Community Bancorp,
here.
Soon, Sterling.
In
January, disparate lender
Investor Bancorp, on which
Fair Finance Watch previously
got a condition imposed saw
its proposal with Bank of
Princeton fall apart.
And now
it's Capital One - Cabela, on
which Inner City Press
commented: "In the New York
City MSA in 2015, the most
recent year for which HMDA
data is available, for
conventional home purchase
loans Capital One denied the
applications of whites 23% of
the time, while denying
African Africans fully 45% of
the time, and Latinos even
more, 46% of the time. This is
unacceptable.
Meanwhile, Capital One
is “closing branches in
Laurel, Gaithersburg,
Frederick and Merrifield.”
Capital One came back with
snark, as has Simmons National
-- but then announced
including to NCRC that
it will withdrawn its
application. Onward.
***
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-303,
UN, NY 10017 USA
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
2006-2015 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
for
|
,
