| BMO Harris
BNP Faced Fed Qs After Admitting
Mislabeling Info Now More Confidential
Answers
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Story
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
FED COURT / S
Bronx, Oct 15 – Whether or not
the U.S. Community
Reinvestment Act will actually
be enforced under the
Administration and its
regulators remains an open
question. Consider: Inner City
Press immediately reported
that BMO Harris' application
to buy Bank of the West and
its more than 500 branches
from BNP would be a litmus
test.
Fair
Finance Watch noted, from Day
1, that in 2020 BMO Harris
denied many more mortgage
applications from African
Americans than it approved:
509 denied versus only 223
loans made to African
Americans, nationwide. BMO's
numbers for whites were the
reverse: 9270 loans made,
versus less then six thousand
denials. As noted, there are
also climate and secrecy
issues. Fair Finance Watch and
other raised branch closings.
On October 14, the banks' counsel sent
Fair Finance Watch what purported to be a copy
of its submission to the Fed under the Ex
Parte Rules -- but the entire thing was
withheld, under this cover message: "Attached
is the public portion of the BMO response to
the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s request
for additional information received on October
3, 2022. Please
feel free to reach out to me with any
questions. Best,
Ro Ro Spaziani
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz." No
substance was attached, just a request for
confidential treatment.
This is
outrageous. The Fed itself
should make these exhibits
public. Watch this site.
The banks in an
August 3 letter belatedly
admitted: "One commenter
requested that certain
confidential exhibits to the
April 12, 2022 responses to
the Federal Reserve as well as
certain confidential exhibits
to the initial Federal Reserve
application be made public.
The parties have reviewed this
information and have concluded
that some of this information
can be public." So why did
they mislabel it, and the Fed
allow it? The comment period
must be reopened. Especially
in light of this:
The banks now
claim: "Commenters criticized
BNP Paribas S.A.’s15 and BMO’s
efforts related to climate
resiliency and lending to the
fossil fuel
industry...Similarly, BNP
Paribas and BOTW have some of
the financial services
industry’s most restrictive
financing policies concerning
the most damaging forms of
fossil fuel extraction and
have minimal exposure to the
fossil fuel exploration and
extraction sectors."
But consider:
"Following the UK government's
decision to give "final
regulatory approval" to
Shell's Jackdaw gas field in
the North Sea, a coalition of
climate organizations
sent a letter to the oil
major's biggest bankers
calling for a halt to the
project. The letter was sent
to 25 financiers of Shell,
including the top five
financiers in the period 2016
- 2021: BNP Paribas... Almost
all of the bank recipients of
the letter have commitments to
reach “Net Zero” in their
financed emissions by 2050,
including the top five – all
members of the Net Zero
Banking Alliance (NZBA). The
letter highlights the
incompatibility between these
banks’ financial relationship
with Shell and their own
climate commitments,
potentially exposing them to
significant reputational,
legal, financial and other
risks."
We'll have more
on this- watch this site.
Inner City
Press (and Fair Finance Watch,
on the HMDA) will have more to
say about this. Watch this
site.
***
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