Racial bias

The bank asked to move the discrimination case from a Black magistrate to a supervising White district judge, which attorneys for plaintiffs said was an attempt to ‘redline the federal court.’

The municipality and the bank have been at odds over similar issues in the past, and no agency currently has deposit accounts with the lender.

Wells Fargo won an early round in a lawsuit accusing the bank of running a predatory mortgage lending scheme in the Atlanta area before the 2008 financial crisis and continuing to discriminate against minorities for more than a decade afterward.

Lawmakers also asked officials to include more perspectives from Veterans Affairs and USDA representatives and increase focus on manufactured home valuations.

The actions involved are based on findings by an interagency task force first convened last year by Marcia Fudge, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The class action complaint comes after U.S. senators called on regulators to investigate the bank’s alleged treatment of minority homeowners.

An audit found that mostly wealthy, white homeowners in urban counties were benefiting from the century-old policy.

This follows the publication last week of an investigation that found that the bank had in 2020 approved only 47% of applications to refinance mortgages completed by Black homeowners compared with 72% of those from White applicants.

Mortgage companies can open doors to homeownership for more minorities by incorporating low-down-payment financing options; closing cost credits; down-payment assistance; diverse, in-market sales teams ready to provide access and support; and more, writes the chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The complaint seeks unspecified damages over the bank’s mortgage origination and underwriting practices, alleging minority homebuyers were excluded from affordable, low-risk loans.

Housing rights advocates said minority home-buyers and homeowners in 39 U.S. metropolitan areas will receive the funds as a result of a legal action alleging racial discrimination in the government-sponsored enterprise's foreclosure practices.

The researchers found that the disparities that emerged from the analysis of 1.8 million appraisals from 2019 and 2020 were statistically significant.

Wayne County, Michigan's use of Delinquent Tax Anticipation Notes is an extreme example of a nationwide phenomenon: Local officials use fines and foreclosures or tax lien sales as cudgels against people who haven’t paid their property taxes. Some municipalities’ efforts to securitize or sell the debts have led to a broad, upward transfer of wealth that’s rooted in fundamentally unfair tax systems.

A Dallas policy that is supposed to tackle affordable housing shortages doesn't do enough to address systemic racial and economic barriers residents face, according to a new report.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency found several comments that could lead to fair lending concerns in the “neighborhood description” section of reports.

Some states are increasing their requirements for home valuation professionals as housing officials warn that they consider mortgage lenders responsible for equitable practices too.

Solidifi will team up with the initiative originally launched by the National Urban League and Fannie Mae.

The fintech’s algorithms are programmed like "Tesla’s self-driving cars," according to the company’s CEO.

A crackdown is coming at a particularly awkward time for the financial industry: bankers are pressing government authorities to approve mergers and acquisitions at one of the fastest clips since the 2008 financial crisis and to get their paydays linked to those deals, more executives may feel pressure to resolve government claims.

Industry professionals share their experiences of racism and sexism on the job and offer the best ways to help eliminate it.