At the end of the Obama administration redlining consent decrees were becoming coming. Redlining cases, once the purview of large banks, had drifted down to the community bank level. Since the beginning of 2016 redlining cases have dried up, other than one case left over from the prior administration that was settled favorably for the bank. On June 13, 2009 The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of […]
Category: Fair Lending
MUNICIPALITY CASES UPDATE
On May 6, 2017 we reported the Supreme Court’s 5 – 3 decision that cities have standing to sue banks for damages under the Fair Housing Act. We wondered, ” Will we see more of these actions? Most likely.” Well we have another case, and much sooner than expected. The City of Philadelphia filed suit against Wells Fargo on May 15th. We expect the list of cities filing cases to grow steadily. If any city […]
ANOTHER REDLINING CASE – REALLY?
On March 10 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced an agreement with Alpine Bank & Trust resolving allegations the Northern Illinois-based lender discriminated against African American and Hispanic mortgage applicants. HOPE Fair Housing Center of Wheaton, Illinois filed a complaint with HUD claiming the lender’s business service areas excluded majority African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful for any person or other entity whose business includes residential real estate-related […]
KLEINBANK – REDLINING CASE – WORTH WATCHING
On January 13, 2017 the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against KleinBank alleging that the bank engaged in unlawful “redlining” of majority-minority neighborhoods in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, alleges that KleinBank violated the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibit financial institutions from discriminating on the basis of race and color in their mortgage lending practices. […]
WORTH WATCHING – BOA DISCRIMINATION CASE
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced it has charged Bank of America, N.A., and two of its employees with violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against prospective Hispanic mortgage borrowers in Charleston, South Carolina. The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) filed a complaint with HUD claiming the bank discriminated against prospective borrowers who are Hispanic by failing to provide them with information about loan products or by offering them […]