| As FDIC Tries To Weaken CRA
Fair Finance Watch on Republic Bank and Axos
Bank Demands Extension
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
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UN GATE / SDNY
COURT, March 22 – Amid the
Coronavirus crisis, with the
FDIC and OCC yet to confirm
they will postpone any closing
of the comment period on their
joint attempt to weaken the
Community Reinvestment Act,
both try to rubber stamp
mergers even while public
hearings would be prohibited.
Fair Finance
Watch, and Inner City Press
with FOIA requests, have filed
a timely comment with the FDIC
against a proposal by
predatory lenders Republic
Bank and Trust and Axos Bank:
"Dear Chairman McWilliams,
Regional Director Conneely,
Deputy Regional Director
Sabanty: On
behalf of Fair Finance Watch
and Inner City Press and in my
personal capacity, this is a
timely comment opposing and
demanding an extension of the
comment period on the
application by high-cost
lender Republic Bank &
Trust to merge with Axox Bank,
including based on the
Coronavirus
crisis.
Already, the IRS
had extended the filing
deadline for 2019 taxes to
July 15, 2020 (as should this
application).
These are high
cost lenders, already
underregulated and under
commented on. To try to rubber
stamp this transaction while
the effected public is under
shelter in place orders would
be unconscionable.
For
the record, for now: "Non-bank
payday lenders try to get in
on the action by putting a
bank’s name on the loan,
allowing them the pre-emption
protection. One company
engaged in this is Elevate
Financial. Its line-of-credit
product, Elastic, uses
Republic Bank, which is
chartered in Kentucky, to make
the loans. Elevate supplies
the underwriting software and
therefore controls who gets a
loan. Republic Bank holds onto
the loans, but then sells a 90
percent “participation
interest” to an affiliate of
Elevate. Functionally
speaking, Elevate issues and
effectively owns the loans,
but it has a legal fig leaf
that enables it to point to
Republic Bank as the actual
lender. This enables Elevate
to sell Elastic, which its
financial disclosures say
carries an annual percentage
rate of 109 percent, in states
like Minnesota, Montana, and
Oregon, which cap interest
rates at 36 percent. It also
allows Elevate to sell what is
effectively a payday
lending/installment loan
product called Rise in states
where payday lending has been
banned, like
Arizona."
This is the
application: 20200218 REPUBLIC
BANK & TRUST COMPANY 601
WEST MARKET STREET,
LOUISVILLE,
KY Merger
(Regular)
02/18/2020
03/21/2020
Chicago
Additionally,
this application is subjec to
requests for public hearings,
but public hearings right now
are prohibited. It is clear
you must extend the comment
period - please confirm
immediately, and how this
applies to other pending
application and those on which
you have closed or purported
to close the public comment
period this month. Matthew R.
Lee, Esq., Fair Finance Watch
Watch this site.
***
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