| UMB Bank
Application for Heartland Hit on
Disparties Now Info Withheld So
FOIA Request
by
Matthew R. Lee,
Patreon Substack
SOUTH
BRONX / SDNY, Oct 11
–
When First Republic Bank
failed / was given to JP
Morgan Chase, a small list of
other regional banks came into
focus as in danger. Among them
was UMB - a bank whose lending
Inner City Press and Fair
Finance Watch had been
scrutinizing, and now
challenge.
UMB is
asking its regulators to allow
it to expand, buying
Denver-based Heartland. The
application, Fair Finance
Watch on June 21 formally told
the Fed, should not be
approved. In 2022,
the most recent year for which
Federal data is available, UMB
Bank, N.A. made over 2000
mortgage loans to whites, and
only 117 loans to African
Americans.
For every
denial to an African American,
it made only 2.02 loans. But
for whites, for every denial
it made 3.45 loans. It should
be referred to
DOJ.
There is
litigation, there is also
this, reported at the time of
Silicon Valley Bank's failure:
"UMB Bank, a regional bank
headquartered in Kansas City,
Missouri, and with branches
across the Midwest, Southwest,
and Western United States, has
total assets of $38 billion
and deposits totaling $32
billion, according to the
FDIC. However, only 16% of
deposits fall under the
$250,000 FDIC insurance
threshold, leaving 74.11%
(equivalent to $28.36 billion)
vulnerable to potential
losses."
Why would
regulators even consider
approving its expansion? On
June 21, Fair Finance Watch
filed a formal Community
Reinvestment Act challenge to
UMB's application to the
Federal Reserve, adding state
by state data:
UMB Bank
in 2022 in Missouri made 842
mortgage loans to whites, and
only 76 loans to African
Americans. Meanwhile it denied
41 applications from African
Americans, and only 257 from
whites.
UMB Bank in Colorado - in
which it seeks to expand - in
2022 made 378 mortgage loans
to whites, and only 13 loans
to African Americans.
Meanwhile it denied six
applications from African
Americans, and only 107 from
whites.
UMB
Bank in 2022 in Texas made 78
mortgage loans to whites, and
only six loans to African
Americans. Meanwhile it denied
two applications from African
Americans, and only 27 from
whites.
These
disparities cry out for a
referral to DOJ, and public
hearings on, and denial of,
UMB's major expansion
application.
On October 11
UMB's outside counsel Davis
Polk sent the Fed a response
but withheld branch closing,
subsidiary, fintech and crypto
information from Fair Finance
Watch - so Inner City Press
cc-ed them on a FOIA request
for:
This is a formal
FOIA request for the withheld
exhibits to UMB's October 11
submission to the Federal
Reserve in connection with its
protested application to
acquire Heartland Financial,
in particular "Confidential"
Exhibits A and B, including
about fintech and branch
closings and all activities
engaged in by corporate
subsidiaries. This is
presumptively public; if any
is withheld, all reasonably
segregable portions should be
provided.
UMB recites and
responds: 1. Provide a
description of the activities
conducted by the following UMB
subsidiaries: a. UMBCDC, Inc.,
Kansas City, Missouri; b. UMB
Financial Services, Inc.,
Kansas City, Missouri; c. UMB
Management Equity Holdings
Inc., Kansas City, Missouri;
d. UMB Merchant LLC, Kansas
City, Missouri; and e. UMB
Asset Management, LLC, Kansas
City, Missouri The requested
information is included in AIR
Confidential Exhibit A.
Convenience and Needs 2.
Provide an update on UMB
Bank’s branch consolidation
analysis and confirm whether
any of the branches listed in
Public Exhibit 3 of the
Additional Information
Response, dated August 5, 2024
(“August AI Response”) would
be consolidated, following
consummation of the proposed
transaction. The requested
information is included in AIR
Confidential Exhibit B.
Discuss any plans to engage in
crypto-asset-related
activities or fintech
partnerships. The requested
information is included in AIR
Confidential Exhibit
A.
Again, this is
both important for the public
to know and is presumptively
public; if any is withheld,
all reasonably segregable
portions should be provided.
Watch this site.
***
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