| In CRA Test
BancorpSouth Bid For FNS Bank Is
Challenged to FDIC on Fair Lending &
PPP
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
FEDERAL COURT / S
Bronx, Feb 8 – 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
18th day of the new
Administration, Fair Finance
Watch with Inner City Press on
the FOIA filed comments with
the FDIC on a proposal
by BancorpSouth to acquire FNS
Bancshares in Alabama, Georgia
and Tennessee.
The
applicant BancorpSouth Bank -
which jetisoned its bank
holding company when its CRA
performance became seen as so
bad as to prohibit expansion -
in Mississippi in 2019 made
3756 home loans to whites and
only 768 to African Americans.
Its denial rate for African
Americans was TWICE AS HIGH as
for whites.
BancorpSouth Bank in 2019 made
6 loans to whites for each
denial to whites. It made
three loans to African
Americans for every denial to
African Americans.
This is
totally unacceptable.
So is this: In
2019 in Alabama, where
BancorpSouth would presumably
be closing branches, see
below, it made 1567 loans to
whites and only 328 loans to
African Americans. In Georgia,
into which it would be
expanding but where it already
made some disparate loans in
2019, it made 19 loans to
whites and NONE to African
Americans.
In Tennessee in 2019,
BancorpSouth Bank made 1701
loans to whites and only 402
loans to African
Americans.
BancorpSouth would close
branches: "12% of the FNS
branches are within one mile
of a BancorpSouth
branch. Still, Milsaps
said a 30% cost savings target
is reasonable for BancorpSouth
in the FNS deal" - inquiry and
hearing into this are
needed.
FFW and Inner City Press have
been deeply concerned about
the rush by the FDIC to
rubber-stamp mergers by
redliners. This has been
killing the Community
Reinvestment Act and we timely
request public
hearings.
The hearings, and your review,
should also address
BancorpSouth's performance
under the PPP program amid the
pandemic, including these...
Previously, ICP protested the
applications of BancorpSouth
to merge with Ouachita
Bancshares Corporation and
thereby indirectly acquire
Ouachita Independent Bank, and
with Central Community
Corporation, and thereby
indirectly acquire First State
Bank Central Texas, Austin,
Texas. - based on racial
discrimination in lending.
Then:
See, e.g., this.
BancorpSouth's CEO said the
company wanted to
“alleviate... regulatory
oversight,” and become the
“only state-chartered bank not
a part of the Federal Reserve
system.”
The Fed's logic
in extending a recent comment
period due to Coronavirus must
apply to this and other
applications. These are litmus
tests. Watch this site.
Meanwhile
in Federal court, PNC Bank and
its Midland Loan Services have
been sued for usury, predatory
lending and civil conspiracy,
under New York and Federal
law.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2021 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
