United States - In what's being called "the largest residential discrimination settlement in U.S. history," Countrywide's financial unit agreed to pay $35-million dollars in a settlement case alleging the company discriminated against minority home-buyers. More than 200,000 African-American and Hispanic people in 41 states were affected.
Between 2004 and 2008 the company, now owned by Bank of America, focused on giving loans to people with low credit ratings and charging them higher interest rates than other their white counterparts. Some of them were were also guided toward taking more expensive sub-prime loans despite the fact they were quantified for the traditional rates.
Head of the Justice Department's civil rights division Thomas Perez said what the company did was "discrimination with a smile." Twenty investigations are presently open in regards to allegations financial institutions participated in some sort of discriminatory practice against minorities when it came to buying homes.
When asked for a comment Bank of America's Dan Frahm stated "We discontinued Countrywide products and practices that were not in keeping with our commitment and will continue to resolve and put behind us the remaining Countrywide issues" adding the company's practices were not an issue, though they should be to some extent.
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