U.S. Department of Justice Forms Lending Discrimination Task Force
The New York Times reports that the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has formed a Lending Discrimination unit devoted to investigating and prosecuting unfair lending practices. According to Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, the new unit will look "at any and every practice in the industry,” Under the DOJ's most recent budget, the Lending Discrimination unit will include at least 10 lawyers and an economist. Unlike prior Lending Discrimination prosecutions by DOJ that concerned Redlining and discriminatory underwriting decisions, the new unit will focus on "Reverse Redlining," the practice of targeting minority neighborhoods for loans with inferior terms, including high rates and fees.
