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 […]
Tag: Fair Lending
ANOTHER MATERNITY LEAVE CASE
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. […]
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 – GUIDELINES
The previous parts of this article have documented the issue of maternity leave discrimination and the typical regulatory response to the problem. Now we focus on steps to avoid the problem. Underwriting guidelines should provide detailed instructions on the consideration and calculation of temporary leave income. Most investors have such guidelines in place. A typical set of guidelines for temporary leave income are contained in the Fannie Mae Selling Guide (Published December 14, 2014). The […]