FDIC Makes HMDA Referrals

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has concluded that two banks engaged in discriminatory mortgage lending practices, and the agency has referred their cases to the Department of Justice for further action.In the fall of 2005, the FDIC targeted special examinations of 47 banks whose Home Mortgage Disclosure Act showed the largest loan pricing disparities. The agency has completed 33 of the HMDA "outliers" examinations, and two other institutions face possible referrals to the DOJ, according to an FDIC official. A DOJ official recently said the Civil Rights Division has received HMDA-related referrals from federal banking regulators. But he declined to say how many, or what agencies made the referrals. Skadden Arps attorney Andrew Sandler told a Consumer Bankers Association fair-lending conference that all federal banking regulators have ongoing HMDA-related investigations, but that the FDIC has been the most aggressive.