The Department of Justice filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut on December 13, 1993, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619, and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1691-1691f. The Complaint alleged that the Defendant mortgage lender applied more rigorous standards when evaluating mortgage applicants from prospective black and Hispanic borrowers. The Complaint stated that the Defendant had rejected black and Hispanic applicants at twice the rate of white applicants during the preceding two years.

The parties submitted a consent decree the same day at the Complaint was filed. U.S. District Court Judge Alfred V. Covello approved the consent decree, and the case was voluntarily dismissed by the DOJ. The consent decree required the Defendant to continue several recently implemented anti-discrimination procedures, including a mortgage review committee, which conducted a second review of all rejected minority credit applications; a mortgage customer assistance program; and periodic self-evaluations. In addition, the consent decree also required the Defendant to provide lending data to the Department of Justice on a regular basis for the following three years.

Andrew Nash - 06/02/2008


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