Countrywide To Pay $335 Million For Predatory Lending Practices Against African American And Borrowers
Linette Lopez | Dec. 21, 2011,
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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder just announced that Bank of America has agreed to pay out a $335 million settlement with the Justice Department for predatory mortgage lending practices.
This will be the largest fair lending settlement in history, and, as Bank of America would like to point out, is a result of practices at Countrywide before the bank bought the lender.
Here is what the Department of Justice found at Countrywide: From 2004 to 2008, the height of the housing bubble, Countrywide purposely charged over 200,000 black and Latino qualified borrowers more for their mortgage loans than similarly qualified white borrowers.
The short story is that Countrywide steered those black and Latino borrowers toward riskier sub-prime loans, even when they qualified for prime loans, or simply charged them higher rates. These borrowers paid an average of tens of thousands of dollars more than they should have, that includes costs up front and throughout their mortgage.
The short story is that Countrywide steered those black and Latino borrowers toward riskier sub-prime loans, even when they qualified for prime loans, or simply charged them higher rates. These borrowers paid an average of tens of thousands of dollars more than they should have, that includes costs up front and throughout their mortgage.
Read more:
http://www.businessinsider.com/bank-of-america-settlement-with-department-of-justice-335-million-2011-12#ixzz1hJJX7ZNg