| On Fifth Third Federal
Reserve Ignored Public Filing
Until After Comerica Deal Closed
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Feb 2 – As US
bank regulators loosen rules -
including the FDIC moving to
eliminate public comment
altogether on branch expansion
applications - more big banks
are moving to get bigger.
And now
Federal Reserve has twice
rejected public comments
opposing mergers, here Fifth
Third's already sued Comerica
proposal, citing the
"reputation" of the submitter,
see below.
The Fed approved
the deal, despite 80 branch
closing having been exposed.
On January 23 Fair Finance
Watch filed a timely "request
for reconsideration" under the
Fed's rules, noting Fifth
Third's partner Brex is being
bought by a purported
competitor, Capital One.
On February 2,
with no response at all from
the Fed, the banks bragged
they had closed the deal. This
was a new low, even for the
Fed.
Later on February
2 - at 10;26 am, after the
deal was consummated - the Fed
emailed a denial, and left a
voice mail about it. The
request, and the Brex / AI
conflict of interest was not
even presented to the Governors,
but denied by the General
Counsel. Again, a new low.
Inner City Press
/ Fair Finance Watch had
written to the Board
Secretary:
Yesterday Fair
Finance Watch emailed a timely
comment opposing Fifth Third /
Comerica as we have always
done - and got back this
(which I'm glad we saw)
"This is the mail system at
host
www2.webmail.pair.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform
you that your message could
not be delivered to one or
more recipients. It's attached
below.
"federalreserve.gov:
Your access to this mail
system has been rejected due
to the sending MTA's poor
reputation."
We ask that an
explanation be provided - and
that the Federal Reserve
System check on this pending
application and other
applications, including going
forward, that it has not
rejected comments from the
public. Awaiting Fed
response, Matthew Lee,
Esq., Executive Director, Fair
Finance Watch / Inner City
Press
On
October 6, Fifth Third
announced it will apply to buy
damaged Comerica Bank. On
October 8-9, it was opposed,
to the Fed and OCC. On
November 10, after a
contemptuous response by Fifth
Third's Kala Gibson, the fight
was spread to five more
states.
They all
accepted the comments from
Fair Finance Watch. But now
the Federal Reserve no longer
does. A FOIA request has been
emailed to the Federal Reserve
Board, along with a request
for expedited processing as it
impacts other pending merger
applications.
The Fed never
provided any documents about
safeguards because they have
no safeguards. They have set
up a direct filing system for
banks and ignore what the
public and community groups
send in. We'l have more on
this.
***
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