Another big bank pays to settle charges of bias against blacks, Hispanics
Source: McClatchy News
Another big bank pays to settle charges of bias against blacks, Hispanics
Posted by Greg Gordon on December 23, 2013 Updated 28 minutes ago
If you were black or Hispanic and wanted a home loan, a number of banks put you on a separate, more expensive track regardless of your credit score and gainful employment. These rates, the Justice Department alleges, were based on the color of your skin -- practices that helped mushroom the extent of the U.S. housing crisis.
The pattern is becoming increasingly clear from a series of court settlements negotiated with lenders by the department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the last three years with the likes of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Suntrust and now PNC Financial Services Group.
The latest settlement, requiring PNC to pay $35 million, was announced on Monday, Dec. 23rd and covers the behavior of the National City Bank. The Cleveland-based bank was later purchased by Pittsburgh-based PNC.
In late 2011, the department sued Countrywide Financial Corp., for the first time alleging that a major lender had steered minorities into so-called sub-prime mortgages with higher interest rates, based solely on their race. Bank of America, which had acquired Countrywide, paid a record $335 million to settle allegations that 200,000 minorities had been charged higher interest rates than white borrowers between 2004 and 2008.
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