Search results for: redlining

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.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it has entered into a settlement with American Bank of Oklahoma (ABOK) to resolve allegations that ABOK engaged in unlawful redlining in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The DOJ opened its investigation of ABOK after receiving a referral from the FDIC.

In its complaint, the DOJ alleged that from 2017 through at least 2021:

  • All of ABOK’s branches and loan production offices were located in majority-white neighborhoods;
  • For purposes of the CRA, ABOK designated its Tulsa Metropolitan Services Area (MSA) to exclude all of the majority-Black and Hispanic-census tracts in the MSA;
  • ABOK did not assign a single loan officer to conduct outreach in majority-Black and Hispanic areas and did not market, advertise, or take steps to generate loans from majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods;
  • ABOK failed to implement effective fair lending compliance management systems;
  • ABOK significantly underperformed its “peer lenders” in generating home loan applications from majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods;
  • ABOK made a smaller percentage of HMDA-reportable residential mortgage loans in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods compared to its peers; and
  • ABOK loan officers and executives sent and received emails via their ABOK email accounts containing racial slurs and racist content.
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The CFPB has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a private lawsuit brought by a group of eight Black and Hispanic plaintiffs who alleged that the named defendants, which included a bank and its affiliated mortgage company, violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and other laws by targeting Black and Hispanic borrowers and neighborhoods with predatory mortgage loans.… Continue Reading

The Justice Department (DOJ) recently announced a settlement with ESSA Bank & Trust (ESSA), which has agreed to pay over $3 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of redlining in violation of both the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) from 2017 through at least 2021. … Continue Reading

Park National Bank (“Park National”), based in Ohio, has agreed to pay $9 million to settle allegations brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that it engaged in unlawful redlining practices in the Columbus metropolitan area by not providing mortgage lending services to majority-Black and Hispanic communities from 2015 to 2021.  … Continue Reading

The Federal Reserve System, through its Consumer Compliance Outlook platform, recently hosted its annual Fair Lending Interagency Webinar.  During the session, a variety of fair lending topics were discussed, including redlining, appraisal bias, and Special Purpose Credit Programs (SPCPs), as well as supervision and enforcement-related updates. Presenters included representatives from the following federal agencies: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); Department of Justice (DOJ); Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA); Federal Reserve Board (FRB); National Credit Union Administration (NCUA); and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).… Continue Reading

We first review the origins of mortgage redlining and discuss the concept of reverse redlining and new theories of redlining.  We then look at a wide range of topics including: the application of redlining enforcement to non-banks; the use of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Fair Housing Act to challenge redlining; activity at state level targeting redlining; the types of evidence regulators will look for when examining for redlining or bringing an enforcement action; potential penalties for redlining violations; what steps may be required for remediation of redlining; and how a bank or non-bank can build a compliance program to avoid redlining.… Continue Reading

The Justice Department announced that it has entered into an agreement with Lakeland Bank to settle the DOJ’s claims that Lakeland engaged in unlawful redlining in the Newark, New Jersey metropolitan area.  The DOJ’s lawsuit against Lakeland, filed in a New Jersey federal district court, is part of the DOJ’s nationwide “Combating Redlining Initiative” launched in October 2021. … Continue Reading

After reviewing federal regulators’ traditional theory of redlining, we discuss the types of underwriting practices that are likely targeted by Director Chopra’s recent comments expressing concern about “algorithmic redlining,” examine how the use of machine learning (ML) underwriting models incorporating alternative data can be more inclusive than traditional logistic regression models and result in more approvals for protected class members and “credit invisibles,” and offer our thoughts on actions that technology and credit providers should take in response to Director Chopra’s comments when developing and using ML models.… Continue Reading

The Biden Administration’s prioritization of fair lending as a law enforcement focus took center stage last week with the announcement that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a new initiative targeting redlining and that the DOJ and CFPB, in cooperation with the OCC, had settled the first lawsuit filed under the Initiative.… Continue Reading