| As Fifth Third Bids to Buy
Comerica Disparities and OCC Has a
Conflict on Direct Express
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Oct 6 – 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. It will
be opposed.
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 will apply 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 will
demonstrate. Watch this site.
Inner City
Press, which has opposed the
FDIC's moves to close itself
to public scrutiny - American
Banker op-ed here
- will be submitting 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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