| In CRA Test
3d Rakuten Application Challenged to FDIC
by Inner City Press on Compliance
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
FEDERAL COURT / S
Bronx, Feb 15 – Whether or not
the U.S. Community
Reinvestment Act will be again
enforced under the new
Administration and its
regulators is an open
questions.
On the
25th day of the new
Administration, Fair Finance
Watch with Inner City Press on
the FOIA filed comments with
the FDIC on the third
application by Rakuten for
Federal deposit insurance:
"Re: Timely first
opposition to (third)
application by Rakuten for
FDIC insurance Dear
Chairman
McWilliams:
Inner City Press / Fair
Finance Watch is hereby timely
opposing the second
re-submission by Rakuten Card
Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of
Rakuten, Inc., of an
application for federal
deposit insurance (Rakuten
Application) with the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC) to insure the deposits
of Rakuten Bank America
(Rakuten
Bank).
Not only do we
believe that the revised
application has not
meaningfully changed and does
little to address the
fundamental question of mixing
banking and non-financial
activity as raised by the
initial application, including
concerns involving the use,
privacy, and security of
customer information - we also
have these Rakuten-specific
concerns which must be
addressed, including at the
public hearings we are hereby
timely requesting.
1) " Rakuten USA,
Inc’s Americas President,
Yasuhisa “Yaz” Iida, allegedly
grooming, sexually harassing,
and finally, demoting Director
of Corporate Hospitality,
Jessica Wyman, who spurned his
advances across two and a half
years." See here
2) "A former
SoftBank Corp. employee has
been arrested on suspicion of
illegally disclosing 5G trade
secrets to his new employer,
Rakuten Mobile Inc., as it was
preparing to launch its own
mobile network. [Police]
arrested Kuniaki Aiba, 45, on
suspicion of leaking secret
information in breach of a law
preventing unfair competition.
See, here
3) Also on
anticompetitive behavior by
Rakuten: "antitrust watchdog
will launch an investigation
into e-commerce giant Rakuten
Inc. after receiving a
petition from a group of
merchants over the planned
free-shipping policy of the
company's online shopping
mall. According to the
petition organized by around
450 Rakuten marketplace
merchants that was signed by
4,000 people, the company is
abusing its dominant position
by forcing them to shoulder
the costs of free shipping for
all orders." See, here
4) Rakuten,
Inc. has confirmed a judgement
has been issued in a class
action lawsuit against its
consolidated subsidiary
Buy.com Inc. (currently,
RAKUTEN COMMERCE LLC) (U.S.).
1.Court and date of judgement
(i) Court: United States
Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit, here
Procedurally, we requested a
copy of Rakuten's application
and received an
acknowledgement of the request
- but not yet the application.
"Thank you for your request to
receive the public,
non-confidential portion of
the selected deposit insurance
application. The FDIC
appreciates your interest and
will forward the requested
application to the email
address indicated." The
application should have been
put online; the comment period
should be
extended.
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,
including on these concerns:
(i) significant risks to the
Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF)
raised by the affiliation,
integration, and assimilation
of banking and non-financial
businesses, and (ii) consumer
protection concerns raised by
the collection, use, privacy,
security, and safeguarding of
customer information."
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.
***
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