| On Fifth Third Bid for
Comerica CRA Protest Now Filing as
Delaware Judge Sets Jan Hearing
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Nov 28 – 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, 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, Fair
Finance Watch spread the fight
spread to five more states.
On
November 18 the Federal
Reserve put 15 multi-part
questions to Fifth Third,
ranging from branch closures
and the Community Reinvestment
Act to potential shareholder
litigation and, at last, the
Direct Express program. Inner
City Press is putting the
Fed's question letter on its
DocumentCloud here,
as it will Fifth Third
responses - after FOIA if
necesary, though 53 is
supposed to sent them to Fair
Finance Watch.
On November 28
FFW filed a fourth comment:
This is a fourth
timely comment on, the
proposal and applications by
Fifth Third to Acquire
Comerica. Beyond the lending
disparities preliminarily
identified thus far, and that
the US government's Direct
Express payment program was
removed from Comerica, part of
its weakening, and given to
Fifth Third, there is now a
serious lawsuit against the
proposal.
In Delaware
on November 26, Vice
Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn
ruled that Comerica must
disclose additional board
materials. The next hearing in
is January 2026. The public
comment period on this
challenged proposal must be
extended at least until then,
to allow review of - and
comment on - the materials
that Judge Zurn has ordered to
be
disclosed.
We have yet to receive any
Fifth Third response to the
questions put to it on
November 18, and will timely
comment on those upon
receipt...
In the more than
two weeks since, Mr. Gibson
and Fifth Third have put in
nothing, even as his/their
response was proved to be
false. This is a pattern.
In MSA after MSA, and
nationwide, Fifth Third for
African Americans has (many)
more denials than
originations, while the
opposite is true for white
borrows. The pattern is
striking. In Texas in
2024, Fifth Third made 27
mortgage loans to whites - and
other three to African
Americans. In Delaware
in 2024, Fifth Third made
mortgage loans to whites - but
none to African
Americans.
This comment
period should be longer than
the bare minimum; evidentiary
hearings should be held; and
on the current record, the
application should not be
approved.
Their
application to the Fed
disclosed five states they are
filing with: Michigan, Texas,
California, Florida and
Arizona. On November 10 Inner
City Press filed with all
five.
Fair
Finance Watch filed:
Fair
Finance Watch has long been
concerned about Fifth
Third. Fair Finance
Watch has reviewed the
just-released 2024 Home
Mortgage Disclosure Act data
of Fifth Third, not reviewed
in any Community Reinvestment
Act performance
evaluation.
In state
after state, Fifth Third for
African Americans has (many)
more denials than
originations, while the
opposite is true for white
borrows. The pattern is
striking, starting with two
states Fifth Third and
Comerica overlap
in:
In
Michigan, the state Comerica
abandoned for Texas, Fifth
Third in 2024 denied 249
applications from African
Americans while making fewer,
only 177loans - while it made
fully 4189 loans to whites and
denied only 1688 applications.
This is disparate [there
are more states]
***
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