On July 29, 2019 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it has approved a Conciliation Agreement between the California Reinvestment Coalition and CIT Group, Inc., and CIT Bank, N.A., dba OneWest Bank, resolving allegations that the bank engaged in lending discrimination by “redlining” in the Los Angeles region. OneWest Bank is a retail bank with 60 branches in Southern California. The complaint, filed by the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC), alleged […]
Tag: Fair Lending
HAS REDLINING ENFORCEMENT RETURNED?
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 […]
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. […]