| In CRA Test
Challenges To VeraBank Panola Proposal CEO
Tidwell Replies Fed Asks More
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
FEDERAL COURT / S
Bronx, Feb 27 – Whether or not
the U.S. Community
Reinvestment Act will be again
enforced until the new
Administration and its
regulators is an open
questions.
On the
10th day of the new
Administration, Fair Finance
Watch with Inner City Press on
the FOIA filed comments with
the post-Brooks Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency
and with the Federal Reserve
on a proposal by VeraBank of
Texas to acquire Panola
National Bank.
The issues
include that the applicant
VeraBank in Texas in 2019 made
465 home loans to whites and
only NINE to African
Americans. Its denial rate for
African Americans was more
than FOUR TIMES than for
whites.
That
is to say, VeraBank in Texas
in 2019 made 3.7 loans to
whites for each denial to
whites. It made less than one
- 0.81 - loans to African
Americans for every denial to
African Americans.
There is also this: "'In the
second round we have seen
about half the number of
requests that we did in the
first round,' said Brad
Tidwell, president and CEO of
Henderson-based VeraBank."
To the
OCC, the rubber-stamping of
mergers by redliners under
Brian Brooks and Joseph Otting
has been explicitly noted. To
the Fed, its logic in
extending a recent comment
period due to Coronavirus must
apply to this and other
applications.
VeraBank
CEO Brad Tidwell responded -
but sent it only by regular
mail, and not email. Now we
have it, and it says among
other things: "We take the
issues that Mr. Lee raised in
comment seriously, and we know
that VeraBank, like all banks,
can improve in extending
credit to minority borrowers."
Yes. It goes on: "relevant
data for the 2019 HMDA
reporting period: VeraBank had
a 42% denial percentage for
African American applicants
and a 14% denial percentage
for white applicants."
Is this
acceptable?
The Fed has
asked: "Page 16 of the Y-3
application describes the
applicant’s plan to
consolidate VeraBank’s branch
located at 1708 East End Blvd
North, Marshall, TX 75670 into
the existing Panola National
Bank branch located at 2203
Victory Drive, Marshall, TX
75672. VeraBank’s branch is
currently located in a
moderate-income/majority-minority
census tract (0203.02) and
Panola National Bank’s
existing branch is currently
located in an
upper-income/non-majority
minority census tract
(0203.01). Please provide
further information about the
applicant’s rationale for
consolidating VeraBank’s
branch into Panola National
Bank’s branch, and VeraBank’s
plans to mitigate the impact
of the consolidation on the
bank’s community in the
location to be closed. 2.
Please provide an update on
VeraBank’s Community
Reinvestment Act efforts since
the April 27, 2020, Community
Reinvestment Act Performance
Evaluation."
The
interim response, by email, is
not from CEO Tidwell, but
rather outside counsel, and
says, "Please direct all
future correspondence on this
application to me."
These are litmus
tests. Watch this site.
***
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