Public Meeting Regarding Fleet Financial Group, Inc., and BankBoston Corporation
Wednesday, July 7, 1999
Transcript of Panel Four
14 MS. CAMPBELL: My name is Joyce Campbell.
15 I am going to be reading Maude's testimony. As you
16 know, Maude Hurd is the National President of the
17 community organization ACORN. She couldn't be here
18 today because she had to work, as does a lot of our
19 members. She had asked, though, that maybe in the
20 future we could have this in the evening so that we
21 could better represent our membership.
22 Anyway, as you know, ACORN members have
23 fought redlining and mortgage discrimination all
24 across the country. We use the Home Mortgage
25 Disclosure Act and Community Reinvestment Act to
0103
1 negotiate innovative agreements with banks that
2 remedy past discrimination. Since we signed the
3 first of these agreements in 1985, the ACORN Housing
4 Program has worked with banks to put over 21,000
5 families into their own homes, valued at 1.53
6 billion dollars. ACORN's program has also generated
7 an additional $4 billion in low-income community
8 investment.
9 ACORN's housing program has won awards for
10 its success in helping low-income minority borrowers
11 successfully get and pay their mortgages. Our
12 agreements with banks include progressive
13 underwriting standards, intensive one-on-one housing
14 counseling and, whenever possible, below-market
15 interest rates.
16 Fleet signed an agreement to participate in
17 the ACORN Housing Program in 1995 when it bought
18 Shawmut Bank. The agreement covered Massachusetts
19 and Connecticut and has produced over 1,000
20 successful home buyers and more than $120 million in
21 mortgages. The program has also increased access to
22 home ownership for single parents, recent
23 immigrants, lower-income buyers and people who don't
24 qualify for traditional mortgage underwriting,
25 although they still pay their bills and they pay
0104
1 them on time.
2 The Fleet-ACORN partnership program and
3 programs like it have been crucial in bringing
4 capital and credit into low-income minority
5 neighborhoods. For most American homeowners it's
6 the single biggest source of wealth. It means the
7 difference between living paycheck to paycheck and
8 building equity for yourself and your family.
9 Home ownership is even more crucial for the
10 stability and economic growth of minority
11 communities. Minority homeowners hold 75 percent of
12 their wealth in home equity. The difference between
13 owning and renting is staggering for African-
14 Americans. The average black homeowner's net worth
15 is $48,300, while for the average renter it's only
16 $500. Home ownership helps the homeowner, but it
17 also helps the community. Homeowners are much more
18 likely than renters or landlords to protect and
19 improve their property. There's more stability and
20 less crime in neighborhoods of homeowner-occupied
21 homes and greater involvement in community and civil
22 activities of all kinds.
23 With the ACORN-Fleet agreement and others
24 like it, we were really starting to see a positive
25 shift in the rate of minority home ownership. In
0105
1 early and mid-'90s the percentage of growth of
2 minority home buyers was greater than that of whites
3 for the first time ever. These deals were helping
4 our Massachusetts and Connecticut neighbors achieve
5 the American dream of home ownership, while helping
6 Fleet gain significant market share in minority
7 lending.
8 But as the '90s draw to a close, we are
9 starting to see a downward trend in lending to
10 minority and low-income census tracts. As banks
11 like Fleet get bigger and less accountable to the
12 local communities, they walk away from innovative
13 programs and begin to use cookie-cutter formulas
14 that try to fit everyone into a white middle-class
15 ideal credit situation.
16 Sometimes they even get encouragement from
17 Washington, like the conservative Congress that's
18 trying to dismantle the Community Reinvestment Act.
19 If this merger proceeds, Fleet will be the
20 biggest mortgage player by far in Boston and
21 Bridgeport and many other cities across the
22 Northeast. When they turn their backs on the
23 programs that brought in 30 to 80 percent of their
24 minority lending business in recent years, they are
25 turning their backs on our communities. And let me
0106
1 tell you, without these kinds of programs, our
2 neighborhoods don't stand a chance.
3 If Fleet turns their back on the ACORN
4 program, their record in Boston is likely to go as
5 low as it has in other cities. Over the last ten
6 years Fleet has been showing an alarming trend.
7 Each time the bank merges, it decreases its
8 community reinvestment work. Fleet's CRA ratings
9 have been going down in recent years, even when the
10 banks they have acquired have a grade of
11 "Outstanding." It happened with Northstar in 1991
12 and NatWest in 1994. These banks were high-quality
13 community lenders, but since being acquired by
14 Fleet, they have gone down to "Satisfactory" to "Low
15 Satisfactory" range and slipping.
16 Our community cannot afford to have history
17 repeat itself, as Fleet swallows up yet another bank
18 without making concrete commitments, continue
19 lending in low income and minority neighborhoods. I
20 call upon the Federal Reserve to delay this merger
21 until Fleet can prove that it will meet its
22 investment obligations to our communities. Thank
23 you. (Applause) I did it all.
24 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Ms. Wilkerson on
25 behalf of Mr. Christian.
0107
1 MS. WILKERSON: Good morning. My name is
2 Angie Wilkerson and I am speaking on behalf of
3 Matthew Christian.
4 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Can you bring the
5 mike closer to you?
6 MS. WILKERSON: Good morning. I'm speaking
7 on behalf of Matthew Christian, and I'd just like to
8 put some things into proper perspective for myself.
9 As a member of ACORN, as a member of the community,
10 we began the program with Fleet many years ago. We
11 were the ones who implemented the lifeline banking.
12 We were the first to implement the first-time home
13 buyers program, and if Fleet walks away from this
14 program, it would be devastating to the community.
15 I'm asking Fleet to stand by your
16 commitment that you originated with us and step up
17 to the plate and do what you're supposed to do. If
18 you walk away, it will be so devastating for our
19 community, we will have more homeless people in
20 Massachusetts than we ever had. So please continue
21 your commitment and give us the commitment that we
22 need in our community. Thank you. (Applause)
23 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Thank you very
24 much. Then we have Ms. Mustafa on behalf of Ms.
25 Thompson.
0108
1 MS. MUSTAFA: My name is Lunita Mustafa.
2 I'm a mother of six children and like Ms. Elnora
3 Thompson, I am divorced and I am a single parent.
4 I'd like to say on her behalf and on my behalf that
5 the struggle of raising children by yourself is not
6 easy, as we all know. But for the past five years
7 parents like myself have had ACORN Housing
8 Authority. We have had Massachusetts Affordable
9 Housing Alliance. We have had Mayor Menino. We
10 have had the CRA, Community Reinvestment Act.
11 Five years ago parents like myself were
12 coming out before people like yourself. We were
13 carrying pictures, and we were crying. We were
14 weeping for the death of our children to gangs, to
15 violence in our streets as the result of an unstable
16 community, of moving every year from place to place.
17 The burden on the children is every other
18 year you're the new kid on the block. Every other
19 year there's a new gang or there's a new territory
20 that you have to deal with or a new school that you
21 have to settle into. But for the past five years
22 we've had a chance to rest. And today I don't have
23 a picture of dead children. No. I have a picture
24 of my two oldest children out of my six, and I'd
25 like to show it to you. This is my daughter that
0109
1 just graduated from Bentley College. (Applause)
2 And this is my son, my 18-year-old that I have been
3 in fear when I see other parents bury their children
4 on the streets, and he just joined the U.S. Navy and
5 he's a medic. He just graduated boot camp and is
6 starting a school, his first year in medical school.
7 (Applause) This is what ACORN Housing,
8 Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance and Mayor
9 Menino have stood by me and supported me to help me
10 to bring this about.
11 And I am crying today because five years
12 ago there was a wild beast in our community and it
13 was devouring our children. And then today I hear
14 that they're going to unleash him and send him back
15 out there, and I still have four young children. I
16 have my home, I have my CRA home, but what about the
17 rest of the people around me? What if it becomes a
18 fast rental area again?
19 This is Fleet. My son is supporting this
20 flag. This is what the investment is bringing about
21 for Boston. This is what house Boston is bringing
22 about. This is the safe Boston. This is the
23 result. These are live children, and five years ago
24 somebody would have been crying for dead children.
25 I ask you, the Federal Reserve Board,
0110
1 you're a family. Please don't release the beast on
2 my community, on my children. That's what the
3 merger represents to us. That's what the merger
4 represents to Boston. Without the support of the
5 CRA, without ACORN Housing Corporation, without
6 Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance and all
7 the people that supported us, we don't stand a
8 chance. There is no muzzle for that beast. Thank
9 you. (Applause)
10 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Ms. Carter.
11 MS. CARTER: Can everyone hear me?
12 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Yes.
13 MS. CARTER: I just hope this morning that
14 God's will be done in this hearing, and before I
15 start, I can ask for his help. So Lord, let the
16 words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
17 acceptable in your sight, in Jesus' name, amen.
18 Praise the Lord.
19 My name is Jennifer Carter. I have been
20 banking with BankBoston for many moons, over 20
21 years. I am very concerned about the aftermath of
22 the merger between Fleet and BankBoston. I'm
23 worried that they will cancel ACORN. After meeting
24 with them yesterday, they said that they will be
25 sitting down again with ACORN. But I am more
0111
1 concerned that this is just lip service. And that's
2 lip service. By turning their back on ACORN
3 program, Fleet is turning their back on our low-
4 income and minority community.
5 Have they forgotten that the ACORN Housing
6 Corporation borrowers made up over 30 percent of
7 Fleet's loans to low and moderate income
8 neighborhoods in 1996? Have they forgotten that
9 ACORN Housing helped Fleet increase their lending in
10 low-income neighborhoods by almost 90 percent
11 between 1995 and 1997? Have they forgotten ACORN
12 Housing is responsible for more than 50 percent of
13 BankBoston's loans to black and Latino borrowers in
14 1998 and responsible for 20 percent of BankBoston's
15 overall lending in that year?
16 I think that Fleet has forgotten that ACORN
17 has been -- has done -- excuse me. I think that
18 Fleet has forgotten what ACORN has done to help them
19 meet their obligation to the low-income and minority
20 community. But I would like to remind them again
21 today. If this merger goes forward and Fleet does
22 not renew its lending agreement with ACORN by August
23 1st, I, Jennifer Carter, will be closing my account
24 at BankBoston, and I will also be encouraging my son
25 to close his account at Fleet. And we, the members
0112
1 of ACORN -- raise your hands, ACORN. Praise the
2 Lord. And we, the members of ACORN, have already
3 collected several dozen letters from other community
4 residents in that they are going to close their
5 account as well. We will continue to collect these
6 letters throughout the summer. And I have some
7 letters here if you'd like us to submit that to you.
8 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Yes, please do
9 so.
10 MS. CARTER: So if Fleet is planning to
11 keep taking deposits from our community but stop
12 giving us loans, then we are going to cut their
13 credit line, too. (Applause) This is our way of
14 expressing our dissatisfaction with Fleet's
15 decision. They cannot continue to keep profiting
16 from our deposits without putting back into our
17 community. So that's why I'm here today, to bring
18 to the Federal Reserve's attention the urgency and
19 the dire need for this program, because it's all
20 about helping the low-income community to accomplish
21 the American dream.
22 Please do not rush your decision by
23 allowing this merger. I believe extra time is
24 needed for Fleet to meet with ACORN again as they
25 have promised. You cannot let this merger go
0113
1 forward if it means that Fleet is allowed to walk
2 away from its community reinvestment responsibility.
3 I realize that nothing can be accomplished
4 unless God allows it, so I'm praying for you that
5 the Lord will lead and guide you. Praise God. And
6 I want to encourage Fleet, gather up the frogmen.
7 Let nothing be lost. (Applause)
8 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Ms. Jacobs.
9 MS. JACOBS: Hello. My name is Gwendolyn
10 Jacobs and I am president of ACORN's New York
11 chapter. New York City has every bank there is.
12 There are so many corporate headquarters and there
13 are so much money changing hands, but not where I
14 live in Brownsville in Brooklyn. Where I live it is
15 hard to find a good bank. There weren't too many to
16 start with, and since they all started merging,
17 there are even fewer. Because of this, people in
18 neighborhoods like Brownsville don't have checking
19 accounts. They go to check-cashing stores. There's
20 no local branch of a respectable commercial bank to
21 ask for a loan, so instead we're prey to B and C
22 lenders.
23 Fleet has had dialogue with ACORN about the
24 banking problems faced by low and moderate income
25 people in New York, but they have not helped us
0114
1 address them. Before we had discussed doing any
2 programs with Fleet, we had a valuable relationship
3 with NatWest which gave good loans to minority
4 residents of New York.
5 ACORN had a highly successful underwriting
6 program and then we negotiated a mortgage program
7 offering loans at 1 percent below the market
8 interest rate. We were helping NatWest target
9 populations that were new to them, break into a
10 large, underserved Latino community and build
11 relationships with other community groups and with
12 local minority churches.
13 Then Fleet acquired them and it all ended.
14 We in the New York office were led on to believe
15 that these programs and our relationships would be
16 unaffected. At the time of the merger, they told us
17 that all that would change was the stationery. What
18 a lie. But after the acquisition was complete, we
19 were told that they didn't need our product; that
20 they were covered.
21 Well, we followed Fleet since then, and in
22 fact, they don't have coverage that matched the
23 NatWest programs that were in place. Fleet has been
24 terrible about providing communities with the
25 services prescribed by CRA. It's hard to provide
0115
1 services to a community when you don't have a branch
2 there.
3 In New York Fleet has 39 branches and four
4 of them are in predominantly Afro-American or Latino
5 communities.
6 New York State has a law that requires
7 banks to offer lifeline or basic banking accounts.
8 A few months ago when ACORN members went to these
9 four branches to ask about opening accounts, which
10 one of them happened to be my branch. They acquired
11 it from NatWest. When ACORN members went to these
12 four branches to ask about opening accounts, none of
13 them were told about the lifeline account. When
14 members asked about lifeline accounts, they were met
15 with blank stares. They were instead offered
16 accounts with a higher opening balance requirement
17 and unreasonable fees.
18 So ACORN went to Fleet so we could get this
19 fixed. The New York State law was on our side and
20 Fleet claimed to be on our side, too. We met with
21 them and asked them about their lifeline account.
22 We knew they offered it because it was in their
23 pamphlets. So why didn't the employees working in
24 their banks know about it? Why don't they advertise
25 it more, especially in the branches that serve the
0116
1 people who need it, like the law says they have to?
2 That was when Fleet told us about their
3 merger with BankBoston. They said they would make
4 sure that their employees knew before the basic
5 banking accounts and offered it more to customers.
6 They also said they would make posters for these
7 branches so people would not have to find mention of
8 the account in Fleet's pamphlet. They would know
9 about it just from standing in the bank.
10 Well, our members went back about one month
11 ago, and I went last Thursday, and still they were
12 not offering the lifeline account. Still you don't
13 find any posters either. Fleet has become an
14 example of the rich getting richer from the poor
15 getting poorer. With every merger they have made,
16 they have lost more interest in serving individuals.
17 People like me can't bring Fleet the money
18 that its corporate customers can, but we're not
19 making them lose money either. We pay our bills and
20 we pay our rent, in the same way we could pay a
21 mortgage that we can keep a checkbook. So I am
22 asking the Federal Reserve to carefully consider
23 Fleet's current merger. For every employee they
24 will lay off and every bank branch that will be
25 closed, there are hundreds of consumers who will
0117
1 have less access to banking services. In low and
2 moderate income neighborhoods we need more banks,
3 not richer ones.
4 If Fleet -- the only way I believe Fleet
5 will do anything, it would have to be memorialized.
6 They would have to put it in writing before the
7 merger and they would have to put the money where
8 their mouth is. (Applause) Put the money where
9 their mouth is. Saying it is not doing it, and
10 bigger does not necessarily mean better. Time has
11 proven that to me.
12 When they took over NatWest, the little
13 card they have for the ATM has little things like
14 little ships. Well, their ships are leaving out
15 lower and ours is coming back and we're filling them
16 up and we're getting poorer and they're sailing off
17 into the blue to the twin towers with the money.
18 (Applause) Financial Services Corporation, that's
19 where it's going. We're getting poorer and they're
20 getting richer.
21 That's unconscionable for them to merge and
22 get richer at the expense of the poor. And we are
23 the most underserved, deprived, non-served people
24 you ever saw, and they're using -- they talk about
25 they don't get anything from our money. Yes, they
0118
1 do. They get our money. They're using our money
2 while we're sleeping and we're leaving it in their
3 bank. We are their partners. They should think of
4 us as partners because they're using our money.
5 While we sleep our money is in their bank and
6 they're doing something with it overnight. Thank
7 you very much. (Applause)
8 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Ms. Brown.
9 MS. BROWN: My name is Lori Brown and I
10 live in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I recently
11 purchased my home through the Fleet-ACORN program.
12 Before that I was living in a small three-room
13 apartment as a single mother; couldn't really afford
14 to get a larger place with the income that I was
15 making, but I knew if I could purchase a two-family
16 home I would be able to use the rental income to
17 bring down my housing payment to a level I could
18 handle. But since I didn't have perfect credit and
19 I had recently become self-employed, even though I
20 made decent money, it wasn't possible to get a bank
21 to actually look at me seriously at that time.
22 The only one who really would look at my
23 situation was the Fleet program with ACORN. Thanks
24 to that program my child and I are living together
25 in our new home on a quiet street where lots of
0119
1 people are homeowners and really care about keeping
2 up their neighborhood. I own my own home today and
3 my daughter has a safe place to grow up because
4 Fleet agreed to look at my loan application when no
5 one else would. Through the ACORN Housing Program
6 Fleet didn't try to fit me into a cookie-cutter
7 pattern of what I was supposed to be. Fleet took a
8 closer look.
9 I also used to work for ACORN Housing
10 Corporation as a loan counselor and now I work very
11 closely with ACORN Housing Corporation as a realtor.
12 I have worked with them for several years and I have
13 experienced how Fleet takes a closer look.
14 Most banks these days are using credit
15 scoring to decide if they want to make a loan. They
16 ask everyone the same questions and run the same
17 credit report, send all these numbers to someplace
18 to compute them and they come back with a yes or no.
19 In our low and moderate income neighborhoods,
20 especially in Bridgeport, it was mostly no. But the
21 ACORN and Fleet partnership took a closer look.
22 They looked at things that don't go into a credit
23 score, but that make a world of difference in your
24 application. They looked at my plan to use the
25 income for my renting out one apartment in a
0120
1 two-family home to help me pay my mortgage. They
2 looked at how I had a great record of paying my rent
3 and paying my other bills on time and how I had
4 cleaned up my credit issues.
5 Through the ACORN Housing Program Fleet
6 took a closer look at why a lot of other people from
7 Connecticut in low and moderate-income communities
8 weren't able to get loans. For example, there's a
9 lot of people who were paying very high rents. If
10 you can afford to pay your rent and afford to pay
11 your bills and put food on the table, but not
12 necessarily have a whole lot of money left over to
13 put into the bank, and with Fleet they had all types
14 of flexibility with how much money you had to come
15 up with, and they really took a closer look at
16 having non-traditional credit issues, among other
17 things.
18 And when they worked with the ACORN
19 program, Fleet also took a closer look at being a
20 team player, which is something you really don't see
21 today with a lot of things. While they're
22 processing the mortgage applications and
23 underwriting them, the people who are processing
24 them will call if there are any problems. So if it
25 looked like a problem with an application, instead
0121
1 of just denying it and not looking further into it,
2 they will call ACORN and work with them to work
3 through the issues and get people the mortgages that
4 they were seeking.
5 They took a closer look at my community and
6 we needed the help and we were glad to get it.
7 That's why ACORN Housing did almost 300 loans with
8 Fleet in 1996 in Connecticut. These loans have
9 worked. I know I am paying my mortgage payment
10 every month and on time and almost every one of the
11 clients that I counseled during that time period is
12 doing the same. We haven't heard any complaints
13 from Fleet about the loans or about our clients.
14 So when I heard that Fleet was going to
15 walk away from the partnership, I was very
16 surprised. I am asking Fleet to stop and take a
17 closer look now. Fleet's partnership with ACORN
18 Housing accounted for more than 66 percent of the
19 loans to blacks and Latinos in Bridgeport in 1996
20 and almost 80 percent of the loans to blacks and
21 Latinos in Stamford and Norwalk. In other words,
22 out of a total of 142 loans to blacks and Latinos in
23 Bridgeport in 1996, ACORN Housing's partnership with
24 Fleet was responsible for 94 loans. Once more,
25 ACORN Housing accounted for 50 percent of Fleet's
0122
1 conventional loans to all buyers in each of these
2 cities, 50 percent of all buyers, and in 1997 ACORN
3 Housing Program was responsible for over 60 percent
4 of Fleet's lending to blacks and Latinos, again in
5 Bridgeport, and 55 percent of lending to blacks and
6 Latinos.
7 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Could you wrap
8 up, Ms. Brown?
9 MS. BROWN: Yes. I would like to wrap up
10 by saying, please take a closer look. Fleet should
11 not be allowed to increase their size without
12 increasing their community commitment, and I'm
13 asking that you oppose the merger. (Applause)
14 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Next we have Mr.
15 Collazo on behalf of Ms. Mateo.
16 MR. COLLAZO: Yes. Hi. How are you doing?
17 I'm here on behalf of Mrs. Mateo. I happen to be
18 her counselor. I worked with her for quite a while
19 before she became a homeowner. Just last week she
20 managed to close the deal. So she's basically a
21 homeowner thanks to the Fleet-ACORN Program.
22 She always wanted to be a homeowner and she
23 worked hard to save the few bucks that she had
24 extra. She budgeted herself and finally she reached
25 the point where she managed to save enough money for
0123
1 a downpayment. Her husband was struggling with
2 illness which required surgery.
3 Basically what has happened after that,
4 after the surgery, other bills started accumulating
5 and Ms. Mateo was left with the responsibility of
6 paying all the finances and basically paying all the
7 bills.
8 When Ms. Mateo came to our program I worked
9 very hard with her to get her ready for the
10 responsibilities of home ownership. I knew there
11 was Fleet available for her, so I started working
12 with her to make sure she was ready to meet all the
13 criteria. No other bank would touch this loan by
14 looking at all the other issues that took effect
15 after the incident with her husband. So after
16 carefully taking care of all the outstanding debts
17 and all the bills that were left over from the
18 incident, Ms. Mateo managed to basically regain her
19 own funds and come up with a downpayment.
20 So basically what it comes down to is
21 because of Fleet and ACORN Housing, the partnership
22 that we had, they managed to become first-time home
23 buyers. You have to keep in mind without this
24 program, there will be no more Ms. Mateos around to
25 basically take advantage of such a great program
0124
1 like ours.
2 I am asking you please do not approve this
3 merger without requiring Fleet to come to some
4 agreement that they're still going to help these low
5 and moderate income people that ordinarily would not
6 be able to go elsewhere. This program was her only
7 chance and it was the only chance for many others as
8 well. Thank up (Applause)
9 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Then we have Ms.
10 Miller for Ms. Blain.
11 MS. MILLER: Okay. I'm speaking for Rose
12 Blain. She lives in Mattapan and she says, "I am
13 working with ACORN and Fleet to buy my own home in
14 Brockton. For a long time I wanted to buy a house,
15 but I didn't believe that I could. I got
16 information about ACORN from a meeting in Fields
17 Corner in Dorchester and I decided to participate in
18 the program. The ACORN loan counselor, Robert
19 Davis, helped me to check my husband's credit, my
20 pay stub, my income tax and my bills. I work
21 full-time and many night shifts as a nursing
22 assistant in a hospital pediatric ward. Even though
23 my income is only $22,000 a year, ACORN's program
24 with Fleet Bank gave me the flexibility to have a
25 low downpayment and a good mortgage rate.
0125
1 I was able to get a prequalifying letter
2 for a house based partly on my plan to rent out a
3 floor to another family. The house I am trying to
4 buy is in Brockton. I will be living there with my
5 husband and four kids. It is my dream to own my own
6 home and be my own boss.
7 Even with ACORN's program it has taken me
8 two years to be ready to buy a home. Without this
9 program a lot of people will miss the opportunity to
10 have their dream. To me it is horrible that Fleet
11 is hurting so many people who would like to get a
12 house. I want many families to get the same
13 opportunity that we did working with ACORN and
14 Fleet. There's an old saying: If it ain't broke,
15 don't fix it. Well, this program ain't broke, so
16 please don't take it away from the people who need
17 it. I urge you to renew the ACORN Housing Program
18 because it works and to stop the merger.
19 On a personal note, six years ago I lost my
20 home due to a bad loan and a bad house; okay? I had
21 no credit. But a good income, and the original loan
22 that I tried to obtain from a regular bank, I got
23 turned down, so I had to go to a shyster loan
24 company. My loan was 16 percent interest and my
25 note was $2,000 a month. After a few years I lost
0126
1 everything.
2 But a sister program to ACORN helped me to
3 rebuild my life and start over again. Without the
4 program and the training to give me the tools that I
5 wouldn't run into the same problems again and the
6 loan through the CRA Act, I would not have been able
7 to get another home for my family for at least
8 another 10 or 15 years; okay?
9 So ACORN works. Megamergers do not. And
10 we urge you today to please stop the merger, renew
11 ACORN and help us to keep our community going and
12 our cities on line. Thank you. (Applause)
13 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Thank you very
14 much. Any questions from the panel?
15 MS. BROWNE: I was a little unclear. Has
16 Fleet said they will not renew their relationship
17 with ACORN? Is it just up in the air? If they have
18 said that they will not renew, have they given any
19 indication why? Is it because BankBoston is sort of
20 handling community affairs? I was a little unclear
21 whether this is something that's up in the air or
22 you have some reason to believe --
23 MS. CAMPBELL: No, it's not up the air at
24 all. They said as of July 1st the program ends.
25 They walked away from the negotiation table. They
0127
1 have said since then a week ago at a meeting that
2 Marge was at and I was at, they said, oh, yeah, we
3 plan on setting up a meeting, you know, we have such
4 a good partnership. But we haven't heard from them.
5 They had a meeting yesterday, a community
6 meeting that we weren't invited to, but we found out
7 about, so we went anyway, and they said, oh, yeah,
8 we're going to meet with you next week. But I doubt
9 if that's anything concrete that we can -- you know,
10 it's up to you guys to make sure that they sit down
11 with us. I mean, if you just let them say I will
12 and wait for them to do it, I don't think it's going
13 to happen. (Applause)
14 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Thank you very
15 much. We are going to take a five-minute break
16 instead of a ten-minute break. So I'll see you here
17 very soon.
18 (Short recess)
19 PRESIDING OFFICER SMITH: Would you
20 identify yourself, please, for the record.