City National Bank, based in Los Angeles, was accused of discrimination for refusing to underwrite mortgages in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. As part of the largest redlining settlement in Justice Department history, the bank was required to pay more than $31 million.
In recent years, City National has been found repeatedly avoiding lending to racial and ethnic minorities, a practice that has led to the establishment of a task force by the Biden administration to stop.
According to the Justice Department, between 2017 and 2020, City National avoided marketing and underwriting mortgages in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. Federal officials shared that there were six times more mortgage applications for other banks operating in those neighborhoods than for City National.
This form of redlining, as well as other exclusionary practices by American financial institutions, contributes to the systemic difficulty for Black and Brown Americans to accumulate generational wealth. Financial institutions need to hold themselves accountable for their significant role in perpetuating racial inequity.
Source: NBC News