| Link Bank
Bid To Buy Partners Bancorp On the Ocean
Rebound Is CRA Litmus Test for the Fed
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
SOUTH BRONX, May
6 – Pennsylvania,
Delaware and Virginia are
portrayed as diverse and ever
progressive places. But their
banks, not so much.
Consider
for example the proposed
merger on the rebound between
New York-based Link Bank and
Partners Bancorp, which
recently broke off its
proposed deal with OceanFirst.
Inner City Press
and Fair Finance Watch have
long exposed redlining - and
in this vein, on May 6 they
filed a Community Reinvestment
Act challenge with the Federal
Reserve:
This is a
timely first comment on the
Applications of LINKBANCORP,
Inc. Camphill, Pennsylvania;
to acquire Partners Bancorp,
Salisbury, Maryland, and
thereby indirectly acquire The
Bank of Delmarva, Seaford,
Delaware, and Virginia
Partners Bank, Fredericksburg,
VA "and more."
Since Partners
Bancorp's attempt to sell
itself to Ocean Bancorp died
amid reports of regulator
concern, documents in that
regard should be provided (and
made part of the record on
this application), too.
Fair Finance
Watch has been reviewing
LinkBank including its 2021
HMDA data not taken into
account in any CRA exam and
finds it troubling.
In
Pennsylvania in 2021, Link
Bank made 49 HMDA-reported
loans to whites - and only TWO
to African Americans, worse
that its peers. When one
expands the review to include
loans beyond Pennsylvania,
Link Bank's loans in 2021 to
whites increase to 53, but to
African Americans remains the
same insufficient
TWO.
Virginia
Partners Bank is only slightly
better. In 2021 it made 48
HMDA reported loans and only
THREE to African Americans.
While insufficient, that is
still more than Link Bank's
TWO. A terrible bank would be
acquiring a bad bank, and
making it even worse.
If the regulators
at the Fed mean what they
claim, this application should
be denied. Watch this site.
***
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