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United States : MERCANTILE BANK gets the green light to merge with FIRSTBANK CORP.
Publish Date : 20-May-2014
5 months later than planned Mercantile Bank has finally been cleared by federal regulators to complete its merger with Firstbank Corp.
A protest under the Community Reinvestment Act was filed with the Federal Reserve System in October by Matthew R. Lee of The Bronx, N.Y., who has an online watchdog organization called the Inner City Press/Fair Finance Watch.
Lee claimed that Mercantile refuses to offer mortgages to African-Americans or Latinos. The merger was approved by the 2 banks’ shareholders in December and was expected to close by the end of 2013.
The merger is now expected to be completed as of June 1, with the companies operating as Mercantile Bank Corp. with assets of approximately $2.9 billion, making it the 13th largest insured deposits bank.
After an extensive and meticulous regulatory review, Mercantile obtained approval to complete this transformational merger with Firstbank Corp.
The merger will create a powerhouse community bank holding company.
The delay adds to the cost, although there is no estimate of the amount.
Mercantile had an ‘outstanding’ rating from its last evaluation by the FDIC in March 2012, and received an ‘outstanding’ rating on the FDIC Lending Test and ‘high satisfactory’ rating from both the Investment and Service Tests.
Examiners considered Mercantile Bank to have an excellent record of lending inside its assessment areas and noted that Mercantile Bank is a leader in community development lending.
Lee alleged that Mercantile did not originate loans to African-Americans or Hispanics across a range of loan products, including conventional home purchase loans, refinance loans, and home improvement loans. He also asserted that Mercantile denied applications by African-American applicants for refinance loans in the Grand Rapids MSA.
