American Banker, March 24, 2024, Racist Emails Becoming Focal Point In Redlining Settlements
Discriminatory emails on their own have not been used to allege redlining. Rather they are combined with key lending statistics that show how lenders compare with their peers in making loans in minority communities and whether a lender has avoided locating branches or hiring loan officers in minority communities. All of that, taken together, is then used to show intentional discrimination.
Since Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Combat Redlining Initiative in 2021, the department has secured over $122 million from 12 banks and mortgage lenders to resolve redlining allegations. The Justice Department is working with its civil rights division and U.S. attorneys’ offices in coordination with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the CFPB. Garland has said the DOJ has 25 redlining cases in its pipeline.
