| OceanFirst Flushing
Proposal Opposed After Redline
Deal Bank Says Disparate Impact
Dead
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
FEDERAL
COURT,
Feb 11 – How automatic do bank
now think merger approvals
are? On December 29,
OceanFirst, which settled
charges of redlining earlier
this decade, announced it will
apply to buy Flushing Bank in
New York.
Fair
Finance Watch has opposed it,
in comments filed January 2
with the Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency,
and with the Federal Reserve
Board which recently allowed a
$7 billion mega-merger to
proceed with no Fed review.
OceanFirst's record should
preclude this. and this
proposed deal.
On February 11,
OceanFirst through its counsel
at Simpson Thacher filed a
contemptuous response, that
"OceanFirst entered into the
Consent Order in order to
avoid costly litigation ... we
note that the OCC, FDIC, and
other federal agencies have
taken steps to eliminate or
reduce their reliance on
theories of liability that are
based on statistical analyses
of disparate impact." This is
not a bank that is wanted in
New York State, as FFW has
commented to NYS-DFS.
Notably, at 4 am on January 10
an OCC official responded to
the comment a week earlier and
wrote, "Mr.
Lee,
Thank you for your email. We
do not currently have a
merger/acquisition application
on file from OceanFirst.
If and when an application is
filed by OceanFirst, the
public portion of the
application will be available
on occ.gov (use the CAS tool)
for your review and
comment. Please let us
know if you have any
questions."
FFW
replied: "Well yes, we have
some questions, including in
light of Comptroller Gould's
public statements about
reviewing and approving merger
applications faster and
faster. 1) This does not
confirm that the OCC will
consider FFW's early filed
comment when the OceanFirst
national bank application is
filed. Does FFW have to
re-file the comment, such that
it will only re received some
period into the short comment
period? 2) It is not the case
that copies of applications
are available on the OCC
website. For example, the
comment period is already
running on Fulton - Blue
Foundary - with no link to the
application, and no copy
provided despite FFW's request
more than a month ago.
Please
answer these asap - at
whatever hour."
FFW and
Inner City Press then
commented to the OCC on two
digital applications,
including Augustus / Ivy GmbH
and one loudly announced
but nowhere to be found on the
OCC's website, and submitted
FOIA requests.
Watch this site.
On this,
in 2024 OceanFirst made 1399
loans to whites - and only 94
to African Americans. In
Connecticut, for example, it
made loans only to whites,
none to African
Americans.
In
Pennsylvania its ratio of
loans to whites to loans to
African Americans was 4.5 to
1. In New York, it was 7 to 1.
This proposal is
being opposed along with the
OCC's moves to exclude the
public, and to withhold
documents under FOIA from
Inner City Press and others
until comment periods close.
On January 7 the
Federal Reserve replied: "The
Federal Reserve Bank of
Phiadelphia received your
correspondence on January 2,
2026, regarding a future
application by OceanFirst to
acquire Flushing Bank. The
Federal Reserve has not yet
received an application by
OceanFirst to acquire Flushing
Bank. Accordingly, no
immediate action will be taken
on the correspondence dated
January 2, 2026. If a filing
is received in the next three
months, your comment may be
considered as part of the
application record for the
filing."
MAY be
considered? Still no more from
OCC, as of February 11. But
challenge and FOIL filed at
NYS DFS. Watch this site.
***
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