| Contested Interra
Credit Union Move on
Hicksville Bank Is
Misnoticed But Protested by
Fair Finance Watch
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
FEDERAL
COURT,
June 5 – Interra Credit Union
proposes to expand in Ohio by
buying up The Hickville Bank.
Many are opposing it; some
have contacted Fair Finance
Watch.
FFW, after the
Federal Reserve refused to act
to ensure public access to
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act
data, has commented to
the FDIC on the 2024 HMDA
data:
This is a timely first comment opposing
and requesting an extension of the FDIC's
public comment period on the proposal by The
Hickville Bank to be acquired by Interra
Credit Union. The FDIC's website lists an
application by Hickville Bank to acquire..
Hickville Bank. If this is the Interra
proposal, the notice is troublingly misleading
and should be republished and the comment
period started again.
Fair Finance Watch, which has commented to the
FDIC that its lawless decision to eliminate
public notice of branch applications violates
the CRA, noting the FDIC's rationale that it
receives few public comments, hereby timely
informs the FDIC of this:
Interra in Indiana in 2024 made 1003
mortgage loans to whites, with 220 denial to
whites. By contrast it made only ONE loan to
an African American, while denying five
African Americans. This by itself is
disqualifying.
Of course, there are many other grounds and
sources of opposition...
We will be submitting more comments before the
stated June 27 expiration of the comment
period. As stated above, this must be
extended.
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., American Banker, Sept
10, 2025, "The FDIC is taking
the 'community' out of CRA
enforcement," by Matthew R.
Lee, https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/the-fdic-is-undercutting-a-key-element-of-the-cra
The Community
Reinvestment Act specifies
that "the appropriate Federal
financial supervisory agency
shall (1) assess the
institution's record of
meeting the credit needs of
its entire community,
including low- and
moderate-income neighborhoods,
consistent with the safe and
sound operation of such
institution; and (2) take such
record into account in its
evaluation of an application
for a deposit facility by such
institution."
That is, the only enforcement
mechanism of CRA is its
consideration on applications
for deposit facilities:
branches, and proposed mergers
like this one.
But now
the FDIC has blithely
eliminated 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. This
comment period should be
extended, evidentiary hearings
should be held; and on the
current record, the
application should not be
approved.
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