| In CRA Test
First National Community Bank Bid for
Georgia Heritage First Is Challenged to
OCC
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
FEDERAL COURT / S
Bronx, March 20 – Whether or
not the U.S. Community
Reinvestment Act will be again
enforced until the new
Administration and its
regulators is an open
questions.
Two months
into the new Administration,
Fair Finance Watch with Inner
City Press on the FOIA filed
comments with the Office of
the Comptroller of the
Currency on a proposal in
Georgia, by First National
Community Bank to acquire
Heritage First Bank.
"The applicant
First National Community Bank
in Georgia in 2019 made 45
home loans to whites and only
ONE to African
Americans.
"The target
Heritage First Bank in Georgia
in 2019 made 44 home loans to
whites and also only ONE to
African
Americans.
This is totally
unacceptable.
FFW
and Inner City Press have been
deeply concerned about the
rush by the OCC under previous
Comptroller Brooks to
rubberstamp mergers by
redliners. This has been
killing the Community
Reinvestment Act and we timely
request public
hearings.
The hearings, and
your review, should also
address First National
Community Bank's prior consent
order: "DUNMORE — First
National Community Bank was
released Wednesday from a
federal consent order issued
by the Office of the
Comptroller of the
Currency. The order
defined 21 articles the
community bank had to address
which included a capital plan
to handle property
acquisitions, develop and
implement policies and
procedures to ensure
compliance with the Bank
Secrecy Act." The
comment period should be
extended; evidentiary hearings
should be held; and on the
current record, the
application should not be
approved."
The Fed's logic
in extending a recent comment
period due to Coronavirus must
apply to this and other
applications. These are litmus
tests. Watch this site.
Meanwhile
in Federal court, PNC Bank and
its Midland Loan Services have
been sued for usury, predatory
lending and civil conspiracy,
under New York and Federal
law.
***
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:
Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2021 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
