Diversity and equality

Gov. Jay Inslee has signed a law that will offer loans to minority borrowers to help cover down payments and closing costs. Supporters say it will benefit groups that were victimized by racially restrictive real estate covenants.

The Cleveland-based bank says it will submit to a racial equity audit conducted by an outside law firm, as Citigroup and Wells Fargo have previously done. The bank's decision follows a request that regulators investigate Key's mortgage lending practices for alleged redlining.

The California Reinvestment Coalition, the group behind the assessment, is calling for increased nonbank oversight.

Prosecutors claim every dollar in subsidy funds from settlements equates to ten times the amount in value in home lending efforts.

More than 90% of appraisers are white, and researchers have found that bias leads to lower valuations for homeowners of color. A Flagstar executive said the mortgage-focused bank is "not just going to sit on the sidelines and watch this happen."

The Ohio-based bank concentrated most of its lending branches in majority-white neighborhoods and did nothing to compensate for its lack of physical presence, the DOJ claims.

The filing is the most recent accusation of discrimination in the field, an issue that has drawn attention from the White House last year.

While Black-owned residential properties increased in value by 42.5%, compared with 38.2% for all houses, Nicole Bachaud, senior economist with the company noted that "we're still a long way from housing equity."

The biggest gaps are in cities with the largest concentrations of people in this demographic, a LendingTree study of the 50 largest metro areas found.

The bank's delay in investigating the case forced the plaintiff to resign from the bank in July 2021, according to the complaint. Wells said that it takes allegations of misconduct "very seriously."

Its "enhanced" oversight procedures now include a multilayered review process and if discriminatory bias is confirmed, an appraiser "will be subject to removal," the department said

The department wants to make changes to its reconsideration of value process by giving Federal Housing Administration borrowers the opportunity to seek a second appraisal

A month after the National Community Reinvestment Coalition blasted KeyBank's mortgage lending record to Black borrowers, the group said it will send letters to the Federal Reserve and OCC about its findings.

Banks and other lenders revived special-purpose credit programs after racial-equity protests in 2020 prompted them to reexamine their services for historically underserved groups. Now they're taking those initiatives nationwide.

A new state study suggests that mortgage lenders are putting up barriers to home ownership among people of color.

The homeownership gap between Black and white populations has widened in the years since the Great Recession, putting obstacles in the way of achieving wealth for a large percentage of Americans. How did we get here, and what do the housing and home lending industries need to do to change the current course?

Nonprofit housing developer James Armstrong shook hands with West Dallas residents and some of the city's top brass on an empty field where a rare deal was done.

Bank regulators are considering a measure that would rewrite the rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act. They should consider taking their existing rules seriously.

It came as a surprise to many housing experts that Asian, Black and Hispanic homeownership rates all jumped last year by more than 2 percentage points, according to quarterly Census Bureau data.

Kristy Fercho, who's run the bank's home lending division since August 2020, will report directly to CEO Charlie Scharf and sit on the operating committee. Last year, she became the first Black person to chair the Mortgage Bankers Association, and she took the top spot in American Banker's Most Powerful Women to Watch this year.