James Barth, who earned a reputation as a straight-shooting number cruncher during the thrift crisis, is about to tackle another hot topic: racial bias in mortgage lending.
Mr. Barth, a former chief economist of the Office of Thrift Supervision, has been named to oversee a nationwide bias study by the Credit Research Center Purdue University.
Mr. Barth, 49, said he is entering the project with a view that mortgage bias is not as prevalent as some observers have suggested.
"I know there's been discrimination," said Mr. Barth, a professor of finance at Alabama's Auburn University, "I just don't think it's been widespread."
Last year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston released a study showing that blacks are 60% more likely than whites to be rejected for mortgages, even when income and other credit factors are considered.
But that study has recently come under some criticism, Mr. Barth pointed out.
"The last word hasn't been written," he said in a phone interview.
Mr. Barth was chief economist of the Office of Thrift Supervision until 1989. He was widely credited with seeking to present straight numbers on the industry's mounting woes in the 1980s.
Since then, as an Auburn professor, he tackled topics as diverse as the financial condition of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the future of Egyptian banks.
Last week, he was headed for Mexico City for a conference on the implications for the banking system of North America Free Trade Agreement.
Four Banks Agree to Provide Data
In the bias project, he will advise Purdue's research team in what he says could be one of the most comprehensive studies of mortgage bias.
Four top banks have already agreed to provide data for the study. Mr. Barth said, and more are expected to follow.
Even if not widespread, "any discrimination is totally repulsive," he said. Studies like the new one, he added, should help put a stop to it.
