Diversity and equality

Rocket Mortgage entered into an agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and will pay the consumers $65,000 to resolve the matter.

Plaintiffs seeking class certification claim the bank uses an underwriting system that discriminates against minority mortgage applicants.

Members of the LGBTQ community were most likely to have experienced housing bias, according to a Zillow survey, which also found many people don't recognize how fair lending laws could help.

As part of the settlement, Loandepot will beef up its appraisal policies and practices, it announced.

The Justice Department and the CFPB are increasingly relying on emails among employees that contain discriminatory comments to strengthen their hand in cases against lenders.

A mixed-race couple claims a "whitewashed" valuation in 2023 returned a price 39% higher than the depository-approved result a year earlier.

Across the nation, over 700,000 Black families are "income mortgage-ready," or able to spend 30% or less of their income on a home loan for the typical house in their local market.

Significantly more Americans own a home now than a decade ago, but the disparity between Black homeownership rates and those of other racial and ethnic groups has grown wider, according to the National Association of Realtors.

A look at Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data of similarly situated conforming applicants also finds some lenders' own comments for the rejection doesn't match up with the reason given, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis said.

As part of a settlement with the Justice Department, Patriot Bank must invest more than $1 million of the total in a loan subsidy fund for minority homeowners and take other corrective steps in its everyday business. The bank denied any wrongdoing.

The lawsuit accuses Navy Federal of violating the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act after a CNN report that the lender approved a lower percentage of Black and Latino mortgage applicants.

A Connecticut-based couple sued the bank and Cavanaugh Appraisals, LLC for denying them a refinance in 2021 because of racial bias.

Black, Hispanic and Asian homeowners had a 44%, 32% and 30% denial rate for HELOC products, while white homeowners had a 23% denial rate, an analysis of HMDA data by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found.

A report from the state's attorney general found Black and Latino households end up paying that combined amount more in origination fees, interest rates and other associated costs, in addition to seeing higher rates of loan denials.

How far have these programs come in reaching their goals and how much further do they need to go?

New American Funding's Patty Arvielo found hiring initiatives can help match lending with demographics but says hurdles to recruiting in general are high now.

Meaningful progress on DEI initiatives has a real effect on the workforce. We examine the dynamics that drive this conclusion and what it means for companies.

Two separate programs providing as much as $10,000 in assistance are open to eligible borrowers in the Philadelphia area.

BofA's fintech accelerator launch and Guaranteed Rate's new insurance offering via a brokerage spinoff are among the latest fintech stories.

The company is rolling out a special-purpose credit program to help address what it describes as "the biggest barriers to achieving homeownership." Such programs are gaining popularity among banks.