As US Bank Regulators
Suspend Non Critical Exams Or Go 95% Off-Site
New Project on Abuses
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
UN GATE / SDNY
COURT, May 11 –
Amid the
COVID-19 pandemic, fair
lending and Community
Reinvestment Act are taking a
back seat, or worse.
While U.S.
Comptroller of the Currency
Joseph Otting is pushing
forward with his proposal to
weaken the CRA, his new chief
national bank examiner Blake
Paulson said bank examinations
have gone 95% off-site.
The
Federal Reserve says it is
suspending "non-critical"
examinations, even at the
largest institutions.
Meanwhile the Fed
is pushing forward to approve
bank merger applications, like
Banco Bradesco - BAC which
Fair Finance Watch has been
opposing, as it has commented
to the OCC against the
acquisition of State Farm's
health savings account
business by Webster Bank,
based in part of Webster's
problematic Paycheck
Protection Program
performance.
Fintechs and other non-bank
financial firms are now at the
PPP trough and are getting
sued. For example, there is
the lawsuit filed as a class
action against Fountainhead
Commercial Capital LLC on May
6, noting the finance firm
advertised that it would
process loan requests on a
first-come, first-served basis
and then stealthly shuffled
its line of PPP applicants so
that it would lock down the
largest lending fees first.
Meanwhile Paulson of the OCC,
which wants to admit fintechs
into banking without
regulation, says no one is in
PPP for the money. This while
in response to Inner City
Press' FOIA request for
Otting's schedule the OCC
redacted the names of banks
that he met without, and
obscured others. (A FOIA
appeal has been filed.)
Amid
all this, Fair Finance Watch
and Inner City Press /
Community on the Move are
launching a new project. Watch
this site.
***
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