| On Capital
One Discover OCC Doubled Down
on FOIA Withholding Amid New
Astroturfing
by
Matthew R. Lee
SOUTH
BRONX, Dec
6 – Capital One has applied to
buy Discover, in an
anticompetitive deal that
should be rejected by
regulators if they mean what
they have been saying. After
they applied late March
20, Inner City Press
submitted a second Freedom of
Information Act request to the
Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency (and to the
Federal Reserve).
On May 14 - still
without providing FOIA
documents - the OCC and Fed
set a July 19 virtual public
meeting.
On the eve of it,
Capital One announced a vague
and less than credible plan -
they previously violated their
ING Direct pledge - including
this time $75 billion in
largely subprime auto loans.
Fair Finance Watch testified
for three minutes.
On June 25 the
OCC belatedly responded to
Inner City Press' FOIA request
- by withholding in full 185
pages. OCC FOIA production on
DocumentCloud here.
Inner City Press appealed.
On July
24, the very day on which the
OCC and Fed said they were
closing the written comment
period, the OCC upheld in full
its FOIA denials,
determination letter on Inner
City Press' Document Cloud here.
Inner City Press has requested
an extension of the comment
periods - the Fed hasn't even
responded.
Meanwhile Capitol
One lobbying continues even
now in December, for example a
New Hampshire "IT executive,"
here
As
documented by Fair Finance
Watch, Discover Bank in 2022
denied mortgage loans
application from African
Americans more than twice as
frequently as those of
whites. It grew worse in
the just-out 2023 data.
Previously, Inner City Press
and NCRC challenged Capital
One's acquisition of ING
Direct, see here.This
time, given the antitrust
enforcement claims being made
in DC, this proposal should be
denied. But will it be? Watch
this site.
***
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