Racial bias

According to the litigation, a homeowner's Denver property was valued 25% less because of her race.

A federal appeals court ruled that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits not just outright discrimination but also the discouragement of prospective applicants for credit.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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