Photograph — The Independent

On Wednesday, a United States Attorney, Preet Bharara filed a suit in Manhattan against multinational bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co, after over 53,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers were charged more for home loans than white borrowers with the same credit and risk profiles by the bank’s authorised mortgage brokers.

JPMorgan Chase & Co was indicted by the mortgage brokers the bank engages in originating loans, and in this case, wholesale loans were disbursed to clients. According to an allegation made by a compliant, Chase allowed brokers to change rates charged for loans from those initially set based on objective credit-related factors.

The banking institution was found guilty of knowingly violating the US Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act between 2006 and 2009. There were claims that the bank acted with careless disdain towards over 53,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers. The spokeswoman for JPMorgan, Elizabeth Seymour said the bank agreed to settle the allegation made by the complaint but denies any form of misconduct reaffirming that the bank is dedicated to providing equal access to credit.

Chase will pay $55 million to settle the lawsuit for the bank’s negligence to verify the rates documented by mortgage brokers and to address the unending racial discrimination, the complaint said. On average a white borrower paid $1,126 less than $191,100 loan paid by an African-American and also a non-Hispanic white borrower paid $968 less than $236,800 loan paid by a Hispanic borrower.

In the same contest, 8 major American Banks have reportedly discriminated against black people. In one such case, the U.S. assistant attorney general for civil rights, Thomas Perez expressed worry over Wells Fargo’s discriminatory lending practices stating that people should be judged by the content of their creditworthiness and not the color of their skin, referring to Martin Luther King Junior’s speech “I Have A Dream.”

In the long run, Wells Fargo, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender was made to pay $125 million to African-Americans and Latino borrowers allegedly charged more than their white pairs between 2004 and 2009. In addition, Wells Fargo contributed $50 million to homebuyer assistance programs in eight metropolitan areas around the country.

Indeed, Perez’ rage could not have been over emphasized; it was reported that an African-American customer in Chicago and a Latino customer in Miami both seeking a $300,000 loan paid on average $2,937 and $2,538 more in fees than an equally qualified white counterpart respectively.

As a result, the bank agreed to pay $175 million to resolve the allegations which stated that it charged African-Americans and Hispanics higher rates and fees on mortgages even when they qualified for better deals during the housing boom. Afterward the bank was required to conduct new monitoring programs to ensure fair lending standards.

While the Bank of America as the name implies is a bank all patriotic Americans of different races should want to patronize and be accorded the same respect, there are reports which have suggested otherwise. The bank was accused of failing to offer Black and Hispanic homeowners the same conventional mortgages that white homeowners with similar profiles were offered. This lead the Justice Department to eventually fine the bank more than $2 million.

The Justice Department has not relented in its fight against discrimination. Likewise, from 2010 to 2014, the agency’s Civil Rights Division obtained more than $1.4 billion in relief under fair housing laws.

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