Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following the Federal Trade Commission’s announcement to block the acquisition of Black Knight, a software, data, and analytics company by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure.

“I applaud the commonsense decision by the Federal Trade Commission to block ICE from acquiring Black Knight, both of which already play a dominant role in the technology and data underlying our mortgage markets. Following the earlier announcement of the acquisition, I sent a letter to the FTC expressing my deep concern with such a merger, urging the Commission to seriously consider how such a monopoly would harm our nation’s consumers and our housing market. In my letter, I also illustrated how ICE’s past practices of controlling capital markets data significantly increased prices for investors and market participants, suggesting a similar outcome if ICE could achieve monopolistic power over mortgage originations and servicing data. I am pleased to hear that the FTC has listened to the serious concerns raised by myself, small businesses, consumer advocates, and others, and voted unanimously against the merger and will take legal action to stop it. As I have long said, homeownership is key to the American dream and among my many concerns, this acquisition would undoubtedly push wealth building opportunities further out of reach for so many families by decreasing competition and increasing costs across the mortgage market and the U.S. housing system.”

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Background:

On December 21, 2022, then Chairwoman Waters sent a letter call on the FTC to conduct robust review of the proposed ICE acquisition of Black Knight.

On December 10, 2021, Waters wrote a letter to the Federal Reserve, FDIC, and OCC urging them to strengthen their merger review procedures, including adopting procedures to convene public hearings for any merger involving or creating a large bank with more than $100 billion in total assets.

On September 29, 2021, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy convened a hearing entitled, “The Future of Banking: How Consolidation, Nonbank Competition, and Technology are Reshaping the Banking System.”

On July 15, 2021, Waters issued a statement applauding President Biden’s Executive Order to strengthen merger reviews, and sent a letter to the Federal Reserve urging them to improve their merger review procedures to enhance how they are scrutinized.

On July 14, 2021, Chairwoman Waters encouraged Chair Powell to strengthen the Fed’s “outdated approach to bank mergers” during her opening remarks at a full Committee hearing entitled “Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy.”

On May 19, 2021, Chairwoman Waters expressed alarm at a recent report that the Fed was rolling back bank merger review during her statement at a full Committee hearing entitled “Oversight of Prudential Regulators: Ensuring the Safety, Soundness, Diversity, and Accountability of Depository Institutions.”

On December 4, 2020, Chairwoman Waters sent a letter to then President-Elect Joseph R. Biden urging his Administration to strengthen the merger and acquisition and anti-trust review processes.

On July 24, 2019, the House Financial Services Committee convened a hearing entitled, “The Next Megabank? Examining the Proposed Merger of SunTrust and BB&T.”

On February 7, 2019, Chairwoman Waters issued a statement following the announcement that SunTrust and BB&T plan to merge.

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