| Prosperity Bid for
Southwest Challenged on
Disparities As Regulators Try to
Cut Public Out
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SOUTH
BRONX/SDNY, Nov 7 –
Amid the FDIC's bid to
eliminate public notice of and
public comment on branch
applications, Prosperity Bank
has applied to buy San
Antonio-based Southwest Bank
for $269 million.
Fair
Finance Watch, which has
commented to the FDIC that its
proposal to eliminate public
notice of branch applications
due to lack of comments
violates the CRA, has now
commented to the Federal
Reserve:
This is a timely first comment
on the application by
Prosperity Bancshares, Inc.,
to merge with Southwest
Bancshares, Inc., and
indirectly acquire Texas
Partners Bank. Notice was only
put on the FRB's website
today.
Fair Finance Watch has
reviewed the just-released
2024 Home Mortgage Disclosure
Act data of Prosperity Bank,
not reviewed in any Community
Reinvestment Act performance
evaluation.
In the state of Texas in 2024,
Prosperity Bank denied 109
applications from African
Americans while making fewer
than half that, 40 loans -
while it made fully 1502 loans
to whites and denied only 904
applications. This is
disparate.
In
Oklahoma in 2024, Prosperity
Bank denied three applications
from African Americans while
making only four loans - while
it made fully 84 loans to
whites and denied only 22
applications. Though lesser
volume, this too is
disparate.
Also for now
consider: "Does anyone else
find Prosperity Bank terrible?
Should I go shopping for
another bank. I don't know if
this is the place to vent
about this, but it seems that
Prosperity Bank is constantly
triggering fraud alerts and
then it's extremely long waits
on customer service calls to
get them restored, and twice I
have had all my cards
canceled" and "I was with them
since they were Legacy Texas
and then Viewpoint and once
Prosperity took over service
completely tanked." Would that
happen to Southwest?
FFW notes
in the FDIC's pending proposal
RIN 3064-AG10: "the FDIC has
received a limited number of
public comments in response to
subpart C applications....
Therefore, the FDIC is
proposing to eliminate the
public notice and related
public comment period from
subpart C and to make
conforming changes to subpart
A of 12 CFR part 303 of the
FDIC Rules."
See, e.g., Sept
10, 2025: https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/the-fdic-is-undercutting-a-key-element-of-the-cra
But now the
Federal regulator(s) blithely
propose(s) to eliminate public
notice and public comment on
banks' proposals to
expand. The above-quoted
reasoning is that few comments
are filed. So, that is now
changing.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 130222, Chinatown Station,
NY NY 10013
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2025 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
