| Amid Attack on CRA
FirstSun HomeStreet Bid Hit on
Disparities Now Belated Partial
Response
by
Matthew Russell Lee
SOUTH
BRONX,
April 1 – As US bank
regulators talk about working
to increase the fairness of
the financial system, and
closely scrutinizing mergers
and the spread of bad
practices, banks continue to
assume they can combine.
Before the
Capital One - Discover
proposal, and ABA lawsuit
against the Community
Reinvestment Act regulation,
there was FirstSun
Capital Bancorp of Denver and
Dallas saying it will merge
with Homestreet, Inc. and
Homestreet Bank of Seattle,
Washington.
On
February 23, 2024 Fair Finance
Watch with Inner City Press on
the FOIA filed with the
Federal Reserve: "FirstSun's
flagship Sunflower Bank, in
Texas in 2022, made 694
mortgage loans to whites, and
only 41 to African Americans.
Meanwhile it denied 12
applications from African
Americans, and only 34 from
whites. This is
disparate, and more disparate
both than the aggregate in
Texas.
Nationwide in 2022, Sunflower
Bank made 3059 mortgage loans
to whites, and only 194 to
African Americans. Meanwhile
it denied 49 applications from
African Americans, and only
259 from whites.
For
the record, on managerial
resources and otherwise, note
that on September 27, 2023,
FirstSun Capital Bancorp, the
parent company of Sunflower
Bank, Guardian Mortgage and
First National 1870
(collectively, “Sunflower”),
filed a notice of data breach
with the Attorney General of
California... an unauthorized
party likely took advantage of
the flaw in the MOVEit
software and downloaded copies
of files [containing]
personally identifiable
information."
HomeStreet, meanwhile, is
politely said to have had a
"tough" 2023.
More than a month
later, FirstSun emailed Fair
Finance Watch and Inner City
Press a response, referring
to, but not providing copies
of, letters of support it says
it has procured. Nor has the
Federal Reserve forwarded
these along, or put them
online. We'll have more on
this.
FFW and Inner City Press have
been deeply concerned about
the rush by the Federal
Reserve to rubber-stamp
mergers by redliners, money
launderers and predatory
lenders. This has been killing
the Community Reinvestment Act
and so a timely request public
hearings.
***
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