| As Capital One Bids on
Fifth Third Partner Brex
Reconsideration Sought of Fed
Comerica OK
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Jan 23 – 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 would apply to
buy damaged Comerica Bank. On
October 8-9, it was opposed,
to the Fed and OCC, by Fair
Finance Watch.
After FOIA
requests, the list of 80
branches Fifth Third would
close was exposed by Inner
City Press, and covered in
Michigan press. But on January
13, while speaking loudly
about independence, the Fed
rubber stamped Fifth Third's
application, calling many
concerns irrelevant to it and
spinning the branch closures.
On January 23,
FFW filed a timely request for
reconsideration with the Fed:
"The Approval, at
n. 32, recounted that FFW
'asked the Board to consider
the risks of Fifth Third’s
recently announced partnership
with a fintech firm that uses
artificial intelligence for
its commercial credit card and
expense management platform' -
then dismissed the issue, and
the hearing
request.
"Well, on January
22, 2026 this fintech - which
the Board left unnamed - Brex
announced it would be sold to
Capital One. See, e.g.,
"Capital One agrees to acquire
credit card, stablecoin
payment enabler Brex" and
"Capital One stock drops
nearly 8% after Brex
buy."
How can a putative competitor
- Capital One - own Fifth
Third's partner Brex? The
Board must consider this new
fact, new since January 13, on
connection with the request
for reconsideration, and
otherwise.
There is much in the Board's
approval which is dismissive
and wrong, but FFW will focus
this request for
reconsideration on new fact
involving Fifth Third's
partnership with Brex, now to
be owned by Capital
One.
The approval should be
reconsidered, and other
actions taken."
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 -
and has noted to the Fed that
the proposed deal has been
sued in Delaware, where there
is a January hearing. The
comment period must remain
open, including until all
branch closings are disclosed.
On November 10,
after a contemptuous response
by Fifth Third's Kala Gibson,
the fight has spread to five
more states.
Fifth
Third's EVP of "Corporate
Responsibility" Kala Gibson
wrote in urging a rubber stamp
from the Federal Reserve Bank
of Cleveland, saying that HMDA
data proves nothing. He is
speaking for CEO Tim Spence,
who bragged on the day of
announcement how fast he could
obtain an approval. Well let's
see.
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] They are
worse in Florida...
***
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