| Amid PPP Abuse Lenders Like
Berkshire Bank Refuse As Inner City Press
Requests Basic Data
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
SDNY COURT /
SOUTH BRONX, May 24 –
Amid the
COVID-19 pandemic, fair
lending and the Community
Reinvestment Act are taking a
back seat, or worse. Some
banks to which CRA applies are
excluding smaller businesses
and those in communities of
color. And some banks bragging
about the PPP loans won't
provide any information - we
are Pressing.
Inner City Press / Community
on the Move has begun
contacting both banks and
non-banks for their Paycheck
Protection Program data.
Without yet getting into the
result, note that ostensibly
progressive or "exciting"
Berkshire Bank has for now
responded to Inner City Press'
questions by stating that:
"Good morning
Matthew,
Our CRA Officer will be
reaching out to you to assist.
Terry." Then, after no answer,
and Inner City Press
re-iterated its questions,
this: "They are working
on getting the answers to all
of your questions. You should
hear from them soon. Terry."
But they
were not getting answers to
any of Inner City Press'
questions. Next, this came:
"Hi
Matthew,
Thank you for reaching out to
Berkshire Bank in regards to
receiving information about
our CRA Public File and our
PPP loans. We are currently
unable to answer the questions
you sent over because we do
not have that data available
for release at this
time... Aaliyah
Outlaw (She, Her, Hers)
Corporate Communications
Coordinator." UNacceptable.
We'll have
more on this.
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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