The Greenlining Institute, a Berkeley, Calif., advocacy group, plans to protest the Dutch farm lender Rabobank Group's acquisition of Mid-State Bank of Arroyo Grande, Calif., today.
Greenlining said the Fresno protest would be held because the $687 billion-asset Rabobank has said it would not develop any special programs to help small organic farmers or to help farm workers become farm owners. Rabobank said officials were traveling and unavailable for comment at press time.
The company announced in November that it had agreed to acquire the $2.4 billion-asset Mid-State Bancshares for $851 million in cash. The deal is expected to close next quarter.
In addition to the protest, Greenlining sent a letter last month to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency asking the agency to hold hearings in California about the acquisition and to require Rabobank to report on a quarterly basis its efforts to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act and to help unbanked people get bank accounts.
