When voters in Oakland, Berkeley and South San Francisco receive ballots in the mail next month, they'll be asked whether their cities should be allowed to help build more desperately needed affordable housing.

The country's largest banks should deepen partnerships with minority depository institutions and community development financial institutions, and regulators should facilitate that process.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating allegations that the real estate appraisal standards written by the Washington nonprofit perpetuate discrimination.

The fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets has commissioned an outside law firm to assess its diversity practices. Wells had previously resisted a shareholder proposal that would have authorized a similar review.

By offering financial education through local crisis centers and community groups — and following through with access to credit — many credit unions are building trust with people who had been wary of working with mainstream institutions.

Special-purpose credit programs figure prominently in the recently released equitable housing finance plans of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Financial downturns hit lower-wealth communities first and cause them to suffer the longest.

Citigroup joined rivals in trimming the ranks of its mortgage workforce as rising interest rates continue to crimp demand in the housing market. 

A contested home valuation was based on the professional's "racist beliefs" and eschewed industry standards with comparisons of properties away from the majority-white neighborhood, according to the lawsuit.

To meet the growing demand, banks are faced with a choice of hiring, reskilling or outsourcing.

The San Francisco megabank plans to reinstate guidance that drew scrutiny following revelations that women and nonwhite candidates were interviewed for jobs that had been reserved for someone else.

Monetary policy has a more significant impact on spending of U.S. households headed by white women than on those led by white men or Black men and women, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said.

It is essential to place the central focus on race, to bring nondepository mortgage lenders under the Community Reinvestment Act umbrella and to address bias in home appraisals.

First introduced in 2020, the Fair Access to Financial Services Act would require banks to serve all customers in a manner similar to existing requirements for hotels and restaurants under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Mortgage lenders are increasingly relying on third-party data to determine the amount of incentive to offer.

Bank of America is keeping to its original hiring plans despite challenging economic conditions that have prompted others to pull back, Chief Executive Brian Moynihan said.

Goldman Sachs Group, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup each reported a substantially larger workforce in the second quarter compared with a year earlier. Across the six biggest U.S. banks, the average gain in employment was 5.5% compared with mid-2021.

California counties must now work to remove decades-old racist language in property records that once banned people of color from buying homes in neighborhoods across the state.

Congressional authorization for credit-preference programs in the Equal Credit Opportunity Act could mitigate disagreements that might arise from the equitable housing finance plans, write two partners at K&L Gates.

In the states with the largest share of LGBTQ+ couples, homes cost $116,000 more on average than the states with the lowest share, according to a LendingTree report.