On July 29, 2016 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it has reached a Conciliation Agreement with Philadelphia-based Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania and Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank, collectively known as Citizens Bank, settling allegations that the bank violated the Fair Housing Act when it told a female applicant that she would need to return to work before her application for a home equity line of credit could be approved. […]
Tag: Fair Housing
UNIQUE AND DISGUSTING FAIR LENDING CASE
On June 29th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a joint action against BancorpSouth Bank for discriminatory mortgage lending practices that harmed African Americans and other minorities. The complaint filed by the CFPB and DOJ alleges that BancorpSouth engaged in numerous discriminatory practices, including: Illegally redlining in Memphis; Denying certain African Americans mortgage loans more often than similarly situated non-Hispanic white applicants; Charging African-American customers for certain mortgage […]
SCOTUS DISPARATE IMPACT RULING
With rulings on Affordable Care and gay marriage attracting most of the attention, a ruling on Fair Lending almost got lost in the shuffle. On June 25 the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) rendered a decision in the case of Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs et al. vs. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The case involved the disparate impact theory of discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. The issue to be decided was whether […]
MATERNITY LEAVE – THE ISSUE
Most of our readers probably have heard of the case involving a couple, who had just had twins, whose world was turned upside down when their loan was denied after the creditor learned that the wife was on maternity leave. The application had been approved and the closing was scheduled. After the denial the wife and infant twins had to move in with her parents. The husband moved to an apartment with their 3-year-old. The creditor […]
RECENT REDLINING CASE
On October 2, 2014 the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it has negotiated a Conciliation Agreement with Midland States Bancorp, resolving allegations that the bank avoided doing business in predominantly African American and Hispanic neighborhoods in St. Louis, Missouri and northern Illinois in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Midland is a community bank based in southern Illinois. The settlement is the result of a housing discrimination complaint filed by Metropolitan St. […]