| As Fifth Third Bids to Buy
Comerica Disparities Raised by
Fair Finance Watch and Tricolor
Loss
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Nov 7 – As US
bank regulators loosen rules -
including the FDIC moving to
eliminate public comment
altogether on branch expansion
applications - now more big
banks are moving to get
bigger.
On
October 6, amid the pending
PNC - FirstBank and Pinnacle -
Synovus proposals, Fifth Third
announced it will apply to buy
damaged Comerica Bank.
Starting October 8, Fair
Finance Watch filed
opposition, and Inner City
Press FOIA requests, including
for the Fed's sealed
questions.
One of the
damages to Comerica is that
the Treasury Department took
from Comerica its Direct
Express contract - and awarded
it to Fifth Third.
Now Fifth
Third has applied to the
Treasury Department's Office
of the Comptroller of the
Currency to buy Comerica. Talk
about picking winners and
losers.
And
talking about losers, Fifth
Third's nationwide lending in
2024, the most recent year for
which data is available, was
disparate: 26,121 mortgage
loans to whites and only
11,566 denial to whites,
versus only 1784 loans to
African Americans and even
more denials: 1970.
These disparities continue in
Fifth Third's other states, as
Fair Finance Watch has
demonstrated. On November 7 it
filed this:
In
the month since Fair Finance
Watch commented to the
agencies, the Federal Reserve
has put some question to Fifth
Third's outside counsel Rodgin
Cohen - but has characterized
them as entirely
confidential. Inner City
Press has submitted a FOIA
request, and a second one for
the over-withheld
exhibits.
For now, for the record:
"Fifth Third Bank faces $200M
in provisions from Tricolor
‘fraud’ - "potential loss of
millions following subprime
lender Tricolor Holdings’
bankruptcy filing. Fifth
Third faces 'nearly $200
million of provision expense
associated with the fraud at
Tricolor.'" Public
hearings are needed
Inner City
Press, which has opposed the
FDIC's moves to close itself
to public scrutiny - American
Banker op-ed here
- has submitted FOIA requests
on all this. The FDIC said it
will eliminate public notices
because it does not receive
enough public comments. That
is changing, starting now.
Watch this site.
***
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