| Capital One Should Discover
Merger Dead Voice from DC as Inner
City Press FOIAs Fed
by
Matthew R. Lee
SOUTH
BRONX, April
4 – Capital One has applied to
buy Discover, in an
anticompetitive deal that
should be rejected by
regulators if they mean what
they have been saying. While
they applied late March 20, as
of 1 pm on March 22 there was
no notice of the Federal
Reserve's or OCC's websites.
Inner City Press submitted
second FOIA requests to each
agency. Public hearings should
be held, not only on antitrust
but also lending disparities
at both companies.
While the
OCC has yet to provide some
records requested under FOIA,
it put its application in its
reading room. And it is an
outrage, Capital One gaming
the CRA system. For example
"the Proposed Transaction
would result in CONA
establishing a new assessment
area in Delaware, which
will include all census tracts
in Sussex County and seven
contiguous census tracts
in Kent County."
That for a
nationwide card and subprime
auto lender...
Inner City Press has been
receiving complaints, in the
nature of victim impact
statements. Here is one sample
from DC: "Greetings
Matthew, Thank you for
your reporting on the Capital
One merger and their predatory
lending practices. I moved to
DC in 2019 and see that
Capital One has way too much
power in this region and
nationally. I am a custom of
both companies and have had
issues with them in the past
as a black man. Was denied a
home equity loan from
Discover. Them two getting
together would signal a
much worse recession to
come. I support
stopping this merger...
I am originally from Memphis
where the First Horizon and TD
merger almost ruined the local
economy but was thankfully
blocked. I am keeping my eyes
open for this Cap One
situation and now definitely
subscribing to Inner City
Press."
Still no
records from the Fed, so this:
This is a FOIA
request for the entirety of
Capital One's applications for
regulatory approval of its
Discover proposal, including
all portions for which Capital
One has requested confidential
treatment, and all
communications by your agency
with the banks since February
19. As of March 22 at 1 am,
the Fed's most recent H2A is
from March 15
As
documented by Fair Finance
Watch, Discover Bank in 2022
denied mortgage loans
application from African
Americans more than twice as
frequently as those of
whites.
Previously, Inner City Press
and NCRC challenged Capital
One's acquisition of ING
Direct, see here.This
time, given the antitrust
enforcement claims being made
in DC, this proposal should be
dead in the water. Watch this
site.
***
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