“The NAACP commends the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Bank of America for addressing the serious pattern of discrimination by Countrywide Financial Corporation, which Bank of America acquired in 2008.
Through this settlement the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice is continuing to hold the financial industry accountable to homeowners who have been victimized because of their race or ethnicity.
The lawsuit stems from the discriminatory practices of Countywide from 2004 to 2008 that negatively impacted more than 200,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers by charging higher fees and interest rates to them as compared to non-Hispanic white borrowers in both its retail and wholesale lending.
By agreeing to this settlement, Bank of America takes one more important step towards creating a fairer lending environment for consumers. The 2008 acquisition of Countrywide presented Bank of America with tremendous challenges and opportunities to rectify the acquired company’s most egregious practices. These included ending: no documentation loans, pay option adjustable rate mortgages and “exploding “adjustable rate mortgages. Additionally, in March 2011, Bank of America became one of the first financial institutions to endorse the NAACP’s Responsible Mortgage Lending Principles, which deal directly with the issues in the lawsuit by setting standards of non-discrimination, fairness and transparency in ways that help ensure our nation and all our communities will continue to move forward towards a day of greater shared economic strength and stability.
We hope the New Year, will bring speedy resolution to the remaining outstanding federal and state lawsuits on related issues. Homeowners need relief now, and this settlement is a reminder that justice can be rendered when both sides exert leadership to get the job done.”
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