Redlining

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is reviewing HSBC's lending practices in certain majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, the bank disclosed. The regions under scrutiny include New York, Seattle and several parts of California, according to the nonprofit organization whose complaint prompted the investigation.

The racially targeted mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in 2022 has renewed conversations about whether banks have a duty to help segregated, impoverished communities that were shaped in part by discriminatory lending practices. What do banks owe the Black community, and what influence could they have?

The Home Loan banks are failing to serve huge numbers of Americans because of their reliance on outdated credit scoring models.

The Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania-based financial institution, from 2017 to 2021, did not sufficiently serve the credit needs of majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia, the DOJ alleges.

The groups also want regulators to downgrade the Cleveland bank's rating under the Community Reinvestment Act. The demands represent an escalation of a dispute over whether Key fulfilled promises it made under a 2016 community benefits agreement.

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

The Government Accountability Office said that examiner guidance at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency didn’t take into account new statistical methods to uncover potential redlining.

Questionnaires sent to banks in recent months seek information about loans to same-sex couples, women on maternity leave and people with limited English proficiency. Industry executives and attorneys say the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may be offering hints about specific types of fair-lending cases it could pursue.

The state joins Illinois and Massachusetts in subjecting nondepository companies to state-level Community Reinvestment Act requirements.

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.