Redlining

In a new book, Mehrsa Baradaran argues that the same forces of poverty that African-American banks were supposed to alleviate are now holding them back.

The credit card issuer paid $95 million to settle charges it offered inferior terms to customers in American territories; Mitsubishi UFJ wants to become a top 10 U.S. bank.

Efforts to repeal a Dodd-Frank mandate for lenders to report data on small-business applicants — including race and ethnicity — overlook the benefits of the provision to both communities of color and banks.

The promise of fintech is that it might offer underbanked consumers access to financial products. But some are worried that relying on algorithms to make credit decisions could open up problems of its own.

While the courts have affirmed cities’ right to file predatory lending suits, they are also now holding them to a much higher standard in proving that banks knowingly steered minority borrowers into high-cost home loans.

The city joins a growing list of municipalities that have filed similar lawsuits, just two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities have standing to sue lenders under the Fair Housing Act.

Fintech companies can help consumers and small businesses obtain credit at lower costs, but it is critical to ensure that these innovative companies do not harm borrowers with predatory or discriminatory lending practices.

Biased housing finance practices perpetuate the wealth gap between whites and communities of color.

Though backward-looking, the exam restricts the company from buying banks or opening branches outside the Northeast.

A rollback of fair-lending enforcement activity undertaken by the previous administration would deny justice to millions of families that are subjected to discriminatory practices.