HUD Creates Investigations Office

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has set up a special unit to conduct large-scale investigations of discriminatory pricing practices by mortgage lenders.This unit is analyzing 2004 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data of certain lenders, and it is using testers to see how borrowers are treated, according to Bryan Greene of HUD's fair housing office. Mr. Greene told a HMDA conference that HUD is working with the Department of Justice and the federal banking regulators. However, HUD is prepared to initiate its own investigations of bank and nonbank mortgage lenders. "We are ramping up," Mr. Greene told the HMDA conference, sponsored by the American Conference Institute.