| Community Reinvestment Act
Attack by Otting Triggers Fed Powell Half True
Answer in House
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
SOUTH BRONX, Feb
11–
The current US
Comptroller of the Currency
Joseph Otting cashed out of
his position with OneWest Bank
in California by overseeing
fake comments in favor its
acquisition by the CIT Group.
Then, emboldened, he devoted
the Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency to weakening
or destroying the Community
Reinvestment Act which
provides for the public
process that he subverted with
fake comments.
On
February 11, Federal Reserve
chairman Jerome Powell
answered but was not held to
task on the CRA. Rep. Nydia
Velazquez, D-N.Y., asked
Powell if he "would agree...
that it's more important to
get the rule right than to do
it quickly."
"Yes, I mean I
think that's been our approach
and will continue to be,"
Powell said in response.
But the
Fed's approach has also been
to allow applicants like Banco
Bradesco to withhold for a
month their answers in CRA
protested proceedings. We'll
have more on this.
Inner City Press, which along
with CRC opposed the merger
and then pursued a Freedom of
Information Act request for
all documents about Otting's
fraud, soon found its and Fair
Finance Watch's comments to
the OCC being rejected, or
ignored, or returned.
While
Inner City Press' FOIA
requests get fee waivers from
the Federal Reserve and a
range of agencies in the US
and beyond, Otting's OCC
suddenly started denying them,
hindering access to the merger
applications on which CRA is
enforced.
Otting is trying
to push through this
CRA-killing proposal on a
short comment period,
cognizant of the other CRA,
the Congressioal Review Act.
But it is obvious that even
banks want more time.
On January 26, in
advance of Otting's belated
January 29 House of
Representatives appearance,
Inner City Press / Fair
Finance Watch submitted a
formal comment,
and since then another. Watch
this site.
***
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