This is Fair Finance Watch -- watchdogging the financial industry, from the Community Reinvestment Act to fair lending, human rights and environmental justice
Happening now: FDIC chair Travis Hill is rubber stamping rules on GENIUS Act stablecoins, and dropping "reputational risk" in regulation - this after he / the FDIC eliminated notices of bank branch applications americanbanker.com/opinion/t…
Bad decision(s) - more soon
DC beat: In House Financial Services, FDIC's Travis Hill looks on as Rep Meeks calls OCC's Gould a fixer. Beyond any particular rubberstamped application, the OCC does not put out any reasoning for its approvals, or even contact those who timely commented against
For context on ongoing UN waste, Inner City Press covered this last month: "OHCHR will relinquish its HQ - it is corruption, money wasted in useless initiatives like UDHR75, the Knowledge Hub, the Inquiries branch, the diversity adviser: innercitypress.com/ungate29v…
Man bites dog, OCC brings enforcement action - against Stephen Calk's The Federal Savings Bank (FFW
has opposed Calk's application as a felon to retain an interest in the bank; Federal Reserve withholds information as OCC, for once, acts innercitypress.com/fedres1bc…
US Bank Regulators: Do As I Say, Not As I Do-
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency official Edner Escarne did not pay or file taxes while working there. This afternoon, Escarne was arraigned and pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey
Heather McGhee speaks of 90 million Americans who said no to both parties, and challenges upcoming - not "I have an intractable problem" but "I have a dream."
#JustEconomy
Ex-FDIC official Donna Gambrell acceping award said today's times (and developments) can be disgusting. Agreed: consider the current FDIC's lawless elimination of public notice of branch applications, a building block of CRA: americanbanker.com/opinion/t…#JustEconomy
OK - about to testify to the Federal Reserve on EGRPRA - as some push deregulation, FFW is pushing for transparency. I am asking the Fed why Inner City Press' November 2025 FOIA request was only answered today, about banks on boards of Reserve Banks
HUD about-face: Last night past 11 pm OceanFirst Bank, trying to buy Flushing Bank in NY, filed with the Fed that in 2025 HUD canceled its redlining conciliation agreement with the bank. OceanFirst is *not* a bank wanted in New York - it is an arrogant redliner
March 2-3, 2026 - access to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data being undermined at CFPB?
Attempt 3: Server is busy (returned HTML). Retrying...
Failed to reach data after 3 attempts. The CFPB server is currently locked for filing maintenance.
When you comment to the OCC on their CRA Strategic Plan proposal, which envision public notice only in newspapers (!) before the deadline - so far, only four comments have been posted by them: it's at federalregister.gov/document…
Hmm... New report claims (very) high costs for CFPB - while current applicants Enova (Grasshopper Bank) & OceanFIrst (Flushing) have been, in response to Fair Finance Watch comments, bragged how they put CFPB enforcement actions (and disparate impact) behind them
While there is much to be said of Jesse Jackson, here he was in 2010 testifying on CRA: "99 percent of banks have passed the CRA exams. We must be strongly opposed to providing exemptions for merger review... Congress needs to apply CRA broadly." RIP
FAIR FINANCE WATCH: On World Liberty Trust Co Application to US Treasury's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, FFW Opposition Belatedly Noted- Inner City Press story: innercitypress.com/cra4wltcb… OCC acknowledgment on DocumentCloud here documentcloud.org/documents/…
REGULATORY BEAT: As OCC Confirms Protest to Bunq's Bank Bid Silent on Fair Finance Watch Simultaneous Filing vs WLTC - Inner City Press story: innercitypress.com/cra2wftcb…
Regulatory Capture: OceanFirst - Flushing Opposed After Redlining Deal Now OCC at 4 am Tells Fair Finance Watch It Will Have to Refile, Falsely Claims Info Is Online So Protest to 2 Crypto Proposals, CRA Hidden: Inner City Press story: innercitypress.com/mergers9c…