The Justice Department announced that Citadel Federal Credit Union has agreed to pay more than $6.5 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from at least 2017 through 2021 in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).… Continue Reading
Dept. of Justice
Judge refuses to dismiss most reverse discrimination counts in case against Colony Ridge
Saying that reverse redlining is a form of discrimination, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has refused to dismiss a discrimination case alleging that Texas developer Colony Ridge specifically targeted Limited English Proficient (LEP) people.
In issuing the ruling, the court dismissed a mortgage processing company from the suit, saying that the firm had not been involved in any lending decisions.… Continue Reading
FDIC, OCC and Justice Department update bank merger guidelines
The FDIC, the OCC and the Justice Department earlier this month issued updated standards for bank mergers. The three agencies acted separately, although officials noted that they had worked with the other agencies involved.
“Continued engagement with our fellow regulators is vitally important, especially as it relates to evaluating the competitive effects of mergers,” FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said.… Continue Reading
DOJ launches whistleblower pilot program and cracks down on artificial intelligence misuse
Following a year of new DOJ policies and guidance designed to incentivize companies to self-report misconduct and to cooperate with government investigations, the DOJ has added a new pilot whistleblower rewards program. In their remarks at the American Bar Association’s 39th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri both explained that the new whistleblower policy is designed to incentivize individuals to disclose corporate misconduct through financial rewards from any resulting forfeiture of criminal proceeds. … Continue Reading
DOJ Settles with Patriot Bank for Redlining in Memphis
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Patriot Bank (Patriot or Bank) has agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations that the Bank engaged in a pattern or practice of redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee from 2015 to at least 2020, in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).… Continue Reading
Republican Senators urge CFPB and DOJ to retract joint statement on consideration of immigration status under ECOA
A group of eleven Republican Senators who are members of the Senate Banking Committee have sent a letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to urge the CFPB and DOJ to retract the joint statement the agencies issued last month regarding “the potential civil rights implications of a creditor’s consideration of an individual’s immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).”… Continue Reading
DOJ Redlining Consent Order With Ameris Bank
Recently the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a proposed consent order with Ameris Bank to resolve allegations of redlining from 2016 through 2021 in majority Black and Hispanic areas in the Bank’s Jacksonville, Florida assessment area under both the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Fair Housing Act. In conjunction with the announcement of the proposed consent order, Attorney General Merrick Garland provided an update on the DOJ’s Combating Redlining Initiative that was launched in October 2021.… Continue Reading
Attorney General Merrick Garland Remarks on the DOJ’s Success in Combating Redlining
On October 19, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that its Combating Redlining Initiative has resulted in over $107 million in relief for communities adversely affected by lending discrimination by mortgage lenders. This comes on the same day DOJ announced its $9 million settlement with Ameris Bank, it’s most recent redlining case.… Continue Reading
DOJ Settles Redlining Claims in Rhode Island
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a settlement agreement with Washington Trust Company, of Westerly (WTC) to resolve claims that WTC redlined majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Rhode Island.
In its complaint against WTC, DOJ alleged that the following practices were used to discriminate against Black and Hispanic borrowers from 2016 to at least 2021:
- WTC located and maintained all of its Rhode Island branches and loan officers outside of majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods (WTC designated all five counties in Rhode Island as its Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) assessment area);
- WTC never had a branch in a majority-Black and Hispanic census tract despite the significant presence of majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and census tracts throughout Rhode Island;
- WTC did not assign a single mortgage loan officer to conduct outreach, market, advertise, or generate loans from majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods;
- WTC failed to conduct outreach, marketing, and advertising of mortgage services in majority-Black and Hispanic areas;
- WTC received only 2.4% of its mortgage loan applications from residents of, or for properties located in, majority-Black and Hispanic areas in its CRA assessment area, compared to 9.5% for its peer lenders, and on average 46.5% of the applications generated by WTC in those areas were from White applicants, compared to 25% for its peers.
CFPB and DOJ issue joint statement on consideration of immigration status under ECOA but omit clear guidance
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Justice have issued a joint statement regarding “the potential civil rights implications of a creditor’s consideration of an individual’s immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).”
The agencies begin the statement by observing that while ECOA and Regulation B do not expressly prohibit consideration of immigration status, they do prohibit creditors from using immigration status to discriminate on the basis of national origin, race, or any other protected characteristic. … Continue Reading