| Fifth Third List of 80
Comerica Branch Closings Here with
Comments After FFW FOIA to Fed
by
Matthew Russell Lee,
Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Dec 16 – 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, by Fair
Finance Watch.
On
December 1 Fifth Third filed
with the Fed, but is seeking
to withhold from the public,
the many branches it would
close if it gets Fed approval.
FFW immediately challenged
with withholding under FOIA.
Now on December
15 we have the list of 80
branches that would close if
the Fifth Third merger is
approved, and publish it here
on Inner City Press' Patreon
(it would not go up on
DocumentCloud, for some
reason, at least for
now).
Now on Inner City
Press' DocumentCloud here
On the morning of
December 16 FFW commented to
the Fed and OCC:
Dear Chair
Powell, Comptroller Gould and
others in the FRS and
OCC:
This is a sixth
timely-in-context comment on,
the proposal and applications
by Fifth Third to acquire
Comerica. Last night at 10:26
pm Fifth Third's outside
counsel belatedly emailed Fair
Finance Watch a list of 80
branches Fifth Third would
close if this ill-begotten
merger proposal is
approved.
This
is a scam.
FFW
commented as early as
possible, even before the
applications were filed. Inner
City Press submitted a FOIA
request with request for
expedited treatment for the
branch closure list, so it
could comment on the impacts
during the comment
period.
Fifth Third waited until after
the comment periods
technically expired to unseal
the list, counting on the
agencies deeming any public
comment thereon
untimely.
This is
called gaming the
system.
Add
to this that even on the
fastest overnight review, the
list is clearly misleading,
and intentionally so. Branches
are paired and the one in an
LMI census tract kept up, a
nearly "middle" income branch
to be closed. But by Fifth
Third's own logic, they are in
the same
neighborhood.
All of these should be
considered LMI closings.
Many of the
threatened closings are not
about Fifth Third and Comerica
branches "overlapping" -
instead, they represent the
imposition of Fifth Third's
service-cutting (and
AI-embracing, see infra)
policies onto Comerica's
existing
franchise.
As simply one example, Fifth
Third would close a MMCT
Comerica branch at 2911 W
Grand Blvd in Detroit and
ostensibly consolidate it into
another Comerica branch - 1.8
miles away.
A second
example: in Ann Arbor, Fifth
Third would "consolidate"
Comerica's branch at 101 N
Main St into another Comerica
branch - while also closing a
Fifth Third branch into this
same Comerica branch.
In Florida, Fifth Third would
close an MMCT branch at 1037 S
State Road 7 in Wellington -
there is more, much
more. The
public must be given time to
review and comment on this
cynically late-unsealed list,
one of the actual impacts on
the proposed merger.
FFW will
have more detailed comments in
this regard but asks for the
agencies to immediately
confirm that their comment
period(s) will be reopened,
and this gaming of the system
prohibited in future merger
applications.
On the
Fifth Third AI issues FFW
timely raised, without any
response into the record by
the bank, consider this:
"Fifth Third will acquire
Mechanics Bank’s approximately
$1.8 billion DUS servicing
portfolio." This too must be
assessed, including but not
limited to how Fifth Third's
practices, including now AI,
would impact these customers.
The merger should
be denied.
***
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