| As OCC Moves to
Copy FDIC in Cutting Public Out
of Applications It Won't Accept
Comment
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY/SOUTH
BRONX, Oct 7 – As US
bank regulators loosen rules -
including the FDIC moving to
eliminate public comment
altogether on branch expansion
applications - now big banks
are moving to get bigger, most
recently PNC - FirstBank and
Fifth Third - Comerica.
On October 6 the
Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency moved to follow
the FDIC in cutting out the
public, even as it delays on
FOIA on PNC, and deletes
applications like Nubank's
while letting the comment
period run (out) -
"The OCC is
proposing to amend its
regulations to simplify
licensing requirements for
corporate activities and
transactions involving
national banks and federal
savings associations" -
While tellingly
the OCC's promised platform to
take comments in opposition on
Regulations dot gov did not
even list the proposal as of
late Over 6 - nor on October
7, even as the OCC responded,
"Hello Mr.
Lee,
Thank you for your comments.
To ensure your comments are
documented accordingly, please
submit via the methods
outlined [which doesn't work]
= Fair Finance Watch submitted
it initial opposition,
including:
the OCC proposes
to make the process of public
notice, public comment and CRA
review nearly
meaningless.
It is
already toothless. On August
30, 2025 Fair Finance Watch
commented to the OCC on /
against the branching
application of Terrabank NA
noting that this national bank
in Florida in 2024 made 30
mortgage loans to whites and
NONE to African
Americans.
On September 2 the OCC's
Danielle Larrimore, Licensing
Specialist, sent
acknowledgement of receipt. In
the 34 days since, nothing
from the OCC
The
OCC proposes to further speed
up the public process - this
while the OCC is now
automatically denying Inner
City Press' requests for
expedited treatment of its
FOIA request for applications.
It is now proposed that bank
need not even apply. How is
the public to get notice, and
comment if necessary, if there
is no information about the
proposal?
See,
American Banker, Sept 10,
2025, "The FDIC is taking the
'community' out of CRA
enforcement," by Matthew R.
Lee, here
This OCC proposal to
significantly limit public
notice and comment on branch
applications must be
withdrawn.
The OCC's
response? "Hello Mr.
Lee,
Thank you for your comments.
To ensure your comments are
documented accordingly, please
submit via the methods
outlined in the attached
document - but it is still not
on Regulations dot gov. This
is today's OCC.
Inner City
Press, which has opposed the
OCC's moves to close itself to
public scrutiny, will be
submitting FOIA requests on
all this. Watch this site.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 130222, Chinatown Station,
NY NY 10013
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2025 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
