| Fulton Financial
Disparities Raised on $243M Deal
Now Branch Closing Plan Scam
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Jan 21 – 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.
So on
December 8 Fair Finance Watch
filed with the Federal Reserve
and the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency -
in advance - against Fulton
Financial's newest merger
proposal, under the Community
Reinvestment Act. The Fed
directed Fulton to make its
branch closing plans public,
as it did with Fifth Third -
but on the day the comment
period is set to expire,
Fulton refused.
Immediate FOIA
request and comment:
Now
at 4:41 pm on the day the
comment period is set to
expire, Fulton refused to
comply with the FRS' request
it make its branch closing
thoughts public, as the FRB
Cleveland made Fifth Third on
Comerica
do. We
have immediately filed this
FOIA request (the Fed's portal
is not working today)
Date: Wed, Jan
21, 2026 at 4:49 PM Subject:
FOIA request for the withheld
portions of Fulton Financial's
Jan 21 response to FRS
questions To: FRBFOIA
This is a FOIA request for the
withheld portions of Fulton
Financial's Jan 21 response to
FRS questions including that
Fulton provided a
preliminary update on the
status of Fulton’s
decision-making process
related to potential branch
consolidations or closures.
This information was provided
in a Confidential Exhibit.
Please provide (1) a public
version of the January AI
Response’s Confidential
Exhibit" - to which
Fulton just responded
"Response: At this time,
Fulton has made no decision to
close or consolidate any
branches. Please see
Confidential Exhibit B for
additional responsive
information."
This on the last day of the
comment period. We are
requesting the other withheld
exhibits - the comment period
must be extended, as
well. This is a request
for expedited processing
(application pending), and for
fee waiver, we inform the
public about the operations of
government, here the FRS
Matthew Lee personally and for
Inner City Press / Fair
Finance Watch
We got:
"Something went wrong while
processing your action. Please
contact
FRBFOIA@foia.federalreserve.gov
for assistance if the problem
persists. [Now we've
gotten this:
From: FOI
Requests Date: Wed, Jan 21,
2026 at 4:51 PM Subject:
Automatic reply: FOIA request
for the withheld portions of
Fulton Financial's Jan 21
response to FRS questions To:
Fair Finance Watch The
Board recently transitioned to
an online Request for
Information website to submit
FOIA and Privacy Act requests
and appeals. To ensure a more
timely response to your
request, we strongly advise
you to submit your requests
electronically via
https://foia.federalreserve.gov,
with or without registering.
Registering to use the site
provides several benefits to
the requester community, such
as: • Check the status
of your request 24/7; • Send
and receive messages to and
from the Information
Disclosure Section; and • View
and download responsive
records to your private
reading
room.
But it's not
working...
FFW
noted that Fulton had a seat
on the FRB of Philadelphia's
board, and FOIA-ed what
safeguards are in place. Still
no documents, but on January
20 the FRBP wrote to FFW:
"the Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of FFC
and Fulton Bank, N.A.,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
serves on this Reserve Bank’s
board of directors. As stated
in the Application
Acknowledgement Letter sent to
FFC and in the Reserve Bank’s
letter acknowledging the
comment you submitted on
December 8, 2025, the Board of
Governors of the Federal
Reserve System (“Board”) is
processing the above-noted
Application and is considering
your comment dated December 8,
2025, in reviewing that
Application." Then an
enigmatic, "No further action
will be taken with respect to
your email received by the
Board on January 12, 2026."
Including by the Board?
Later on
January 20 Inner City Press
submitted its third timely
comment, noting with support another
comment. With branch closings
still withheld, and conflicts
unresolved, the comment period
must be extended. Watch this
site.
Fulton Bank NA in Delaware in
2024 made 199 mortgage loans
to whites, and only 24 to
African Americans. Meanwhile
it denied five applications
from African Americans, and
only 68 from
whites.
This is
disparate.
Fulton Bank NA in Pennsylvania
in 2024 made 2381 mortgage
loans to whites, and only 181
to African Americans.
Meanwhile it denied 111
applications from African
Americans, and only 616 from
whites.
On January 15,
the Fed told Fulton to make it
branch closing plans public."
But they haven't been, yet.
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 now
changing. Watch this site.
***
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