| CRA Response
by Burke & Herbert on Summit Merger
Ignores FDIC Conditioning Linkbank
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
SOUTH BRONX, Nov
15 – Virginia and Delaware
portrayed as diverse and ever
progressive places. But their
banks, not so much.
Consider
for example the proposed
acquisition by Viriginia-based
Burke & Herbert Bank &
Trust Company of Summit
Community Bank. Despite a
showing of disparities at
Burke & Herbert even worse
than at Linkbank, which the
FDIC imposed a condition on,
Burke on November 15 issued a
vacuous response. They drop an
ad-hominen footnote which
ignores that the evidence put
forward in a litigation
survives the suit's
withdrawal.
Inner City Press
and Fair Finance Watch have
long exposed redlining - and
in this vein, on October 28
they filed a Community
Reinvestment Act challenge
with the FDIC:
"In Virginia in
2022, Burke & Herbert Bank
& Trust Company made 104
mortgage loans to whites, but
only 12 to African Americans.
This is out of keeping with
the demographics of its
footprint, and its
competitors.
Beyond
Virginia, Burke & Herbert
Bank & Trust Company is
scarcely better. In 2022,
Burke & Herbert Bank &
Trust Company overall made 119
mortgage loans to whites, but
only 16 to African
Americans.
Summit
Community Bank is also of
concern. In West Virginia in
2022 it made 403 mortgage
loans to whites, and only
EIGHT to African Americans.
Meanwhile it denied 3
applications from African
Americans, and only 97 from
whites (compared to 403
originations). This is
disparate, and more disparate
both than the aggregate in
West Virginia.
And that's
not even getting into Burke
& Herbert's overdraft fee
abuses. More on that to follow
- more than conditions, this
application should be denied.
In October,
after a similar challenge by
Fair Finance Watch on data and
complaints not even as bad,
the FDIC required from
LINKBANK a plan to improve its
lending to African Americans,
which Inner City Press has
published on its DocumentCloud
here.
If the regulators
at the FDIC means what they
claim, including in the new
CRA regulation, this
application should be denied.
Watch this site.
***
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
Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
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 2006-2023 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
