| Community Reinvestment Act
Attack by Otting Opposed By Inner City Press
As FOIA Undermined
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
SOUTH BRONX, Jan
26 –
The current US
Comptroller of the Currency
Joseph Otting cashed out of
his position with OneWest Bank
in California by overseeing
fake comments in favor its
acquisition by the CIT Group.
Then, emboldened, he devoted
the Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency to weakening
or destroying the Community
Reinvestment Act which
provides for the public
process that he subverted with
fake comments.
Inner City Press, which along
with CRC opposed the merger
and then pursued a Freedom of
Information Act request for
all documents about Otting's
fraud, soon found its and Fair
Finance Watch's comments to
the OCC being rejected, or
ignored, or returned.
While
Inner City Press' FOIA
requests get fee waivers from
the Federal Reserve and a
range of agencies in the US
and beyond, Otting's OCC
suddenly started denying them,
hindering access to the merger
applications on which CRA is
enforced.
Otting is trying
to push through this
CRA-killing proposal on a
short comment period,
cognizant of the other CRA,
the Congressioal Review Act.
But it is obvious that even
banks want more time.
On January 26, in
advance of Otting's belated
January 29 House of
Representatives appearance,
Inner City Press / Fair
Finance Watch submitted a
formal comment,
including: January 26,
2020 Re: Docket ID
OCC-2018-0008 & -
total opposition to OCC/FDIC
plan to weaken CRA
To whom it may
concern at the OCC and FDIC:
On behalf of Fair Finance
Watch, and Inner City Press,
and in my personal capacity,
this is a timely comment
opposing the proposal by
Comptroller Joseph Otting and
the FDIC to weaken the CRA.
Enforcing the CRA
including through commenting
to the Federal Reserve and
FDIC, and OCC under previous
Comptrollers, the results have
been new bank branches in the
South Bronx, and lending and
consumer protection
commitments well beyond.
Some advocacy, from 2001, here;
2002 here
(Wells Fargo); jump cut
to 2015, here
(due to 5000 character
restriction) and
more
But since Otting
became Comptroller, we have
seen timely comments ignored,
and been denied access to bank
merger applications by a
retaliatory imposition of FOIA
fees. The Federal Reserve and
other federal agencies, like
the OCC pre-Otting, grant
Inner City Press FOIA fee
waivers. Under Otting, the OCC
does not.
On Chinatown FSB,
the OCC refused to consider a
timely comment. The OCC
unilaterally determined not to
accept public comments on a
major bank's charter
conversion application, which
it rubber stamped. This
has been rogue-like behavior.
It is in keeping with our
experience with Otting when,
as head of One West, he
oversaw false comments
submitted to regulators to
support One West's merger with
CIT. People wrote it and said
they had not commented; the
regulators asked Otting's
OneWest's counsel - and there
the trail of evidence ends,
for now. See, for the record
(including the record on this
timely request that Otting be
recused and the proposal
withdrawn), here.
In 2020 we
are aware of the OCC calling
community groups looking to be
able to say they didn't
authorize their sign-ons.
Well, we proudly signed onto
NCRC's letter(s). And for now,
in advance of Otting's January
29 House appearance, we
re-affirm these
views: Under the
NPRM, the definition of
affordable housing is relaxed
to include middle-income
housing in high-cost areas. In
addition, housing is assumed
to be affordable if
lower-income people can afford
to pay the rent without
verifying that lower-income
people will be tenants.
Essential infrastructure such
as bridges is added as an
activity eligible for
community development but
clearly estimating the benefit
to LMI populations of such
large-scale projects is
difficult and likely to result
in ratings inflation as well
as diverting funding from
community development directly
in LMI communities...
Absurdly, the
proposal would grant CRA
credit for work on stadia, for
example. The proposal must be
withdrawn. In short, we
are totally opposed to
Otting's and the FDIC's
proposals and think for the
reasons set forth above,
including actions at OneWest
and more recently trying to
intimidate community groups,
Otting must be recused and the
proposal withdrawn. We will
have further comments.
Matthew R Lee Fair Finance
Watch (and Inner City Press)
New York. Watch this
site.
***
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