A US-based financial services and bank holding company. Its subsidiary Fifth Third Bank has provided credit and loans to private prison corporations CoreCivic and GEO Group.
Fifth Third Bancorp is a financial services and bank holding company headquartered in Cincinnati. Fifth Third conducts banking operations through its principal subsidiary, Fifth Third Bank. As of 2020, Fifth Third operated 1,134 branches, employed 19,872 people, and reported an annual revenue of $7.6 billion.
Fifth Third Bancorp has been identified as one of the major financial institutions supporting private prison and immigrant detention companies. Fifth Third Bank is a member of bank syndicates that have extended hundreds of millions of dollars in revolving lines of credit, term loans, and bonds to CoreCivic and GEO Group, the largest private prison and immigrant detention companies in the U.S. These companies rely on banks and financial institutions to fund their operations and expansion into additional carceral industries.
In 2018, CoreCivic entered into a $1 billion credit agreement with a syndicate of banks that included Bank of America, Citizens Bank, Fifth Third Bank, First Tennessee Bank (now First Horizon Bank), JPMorgan Chase, Pinnacle Bank, PNC Bank, Regions Bank, SunTrust Bank (now Truist Financial Corporation), and Synovus Bank. Replacing CoreCivic's previous $900 million credit facility, this agreement consists of an $800 million revolving line of credit and a $200 million term loan. Fifth Third Bank, acting as a lender in the deal, committed $80 million and $20 million, respectively, to CoreCivic's revolving line of credit and term loan. The agreement is set to expire in 2023.
In 2016, a Fifth Third Bancorp subsidiary, Fifth Third Securities, Inc., became an underwriter for GEO Group and purchased $10.5 million worth of banknotes, set to expire in 2026. Fifth Third served as part of a syndicate of banks that provided a $350 million loan. This syndicate also included Barclays, BNP Paribas, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Regions Bank, SunTrust (now Truist Financial Corporation), TD Securities, and Wells Fargo.
In July 2019, Fifth Third Bank announced that it would stop financing companies that manage private prisons and immigration jails. Fifth Third's decision followed in the wake of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, SunTrust, and Wells Fargo announcing their commitment to severing business relations with private prison companies.