| Fed Rubber Stamps
Pinnacle Synovus Merger
Protested on Community
Reinvestment Act
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
NASHVILLE,
Nov
25 – Synovus Bank, with a
track record of disparate
lending and consumer
complaints, aims to cash out
and merge with Nashville-based
Pinnacle.
But
Pinnacle has its own
disparities, and is
under-regulated by the
Tennessee Commissioner of
Financial Institutions, who
refuses to provide any
documents to anyone but
Tennessee "citizens" (not even
those *in* Tennessee).
So Fair Finance
Watch filed Community
Reinvestment Act challenges
with the Federal Reserve and
the Georgia regulator (both
have confirmed receipt and the
Fed has sent
to Pinnacle) as well as the
recalcitrant Tennessee
regulator, who refuses to give
records or even confirm
receipt of the challenge.
Pinnacle has Tennessee in the
palm of its hand, lock stock
and barrel, regulator and
media.
And now it has
the Federal Reserve too, which
on November 25 issued a rubber
stamp approval, including that
FFW "objected to the proposal,
alleging that both Synovus
Bank and Pinnacle Bank
generally made proportionally
fewer home loans to African
American individuals as
compared to white individuals
in 2024
The Fed Order
concedes as to FFW that "The
data cited by
this commenter
corresponds to
publicly
available 2024
data reported
by both
Synovus Bank
and Pinnacle
Bank under the
Home Mortgage
Disclosure Act
of 1975
(“HMDA”), 12
U.S.C. § 2801
et seq." - but
the Fed
doesn't care
about
disparities.
It continues: "This commenter
also alleged that Pinnacle
Bank denied home loan
applications of African
American individuals at a
higher rate than those of
white individuals." But the
Fed still approved.
Back on October 9
the Fed asked Pinnacle nine
multi-part questions,
including "A copy of the CRA
policy to be used by the
combined organization or, if
one is not available, a
projected timeline for
completion. 4. Discuss
the combined organization’s
plans to manage third party
partnership compliance risk
exposure, including, but not
limited to, BHG Financial and
GreenSky, LLC. a. Include in
your discussion anticipated
key leadership positions and
any individuals identified to
fill them; plans for
reporting/Management" - full
letter here.
From the comment:
Dear Chair Powell and others
in the FRS:
... Fair
Finance Watch has reviewed the
just-released 2024 Home
Mortgage Disclosure Act data
of Synovus and finds that
while it made 3.18 loans to
whites for each denial to
whites, it made only 1.7 loans
to African Americans for each
denial to African Americans.
Pinnacle is of even greater
concern. In Virginia, where
Pinnacle received a Low
Satisfactory on the Lending
Test in its most recently (May
2023) CRA performance
evaluation, in 2024 it made
133 mortgage loans to whites,
with 19 denials, but only 13
loans to African Americans,
with fully eight denials...
This
application should not be
approved; particularly in
light of the disparities,
public evidentiary hearings
are needed.
Watch this site.
***
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