The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced on Friday that it is charging Bank of America and two of its employees with discriminating against Hispanic mortgage borrowers, HousingWire.com reported. The charges stem from a complaint filed by the National Fair Housing Alliance, which conducted a series of “secret shopper” tests in which Hispanic and non-Hispanic individuals, posing as prospective mortgage borrowers, attempted to get a mortgage from a Bank of America branch in Charleston, S.C. According to the National Fair Housing Alliance and HUD, Hispanic prospective mortgage borrowers were given inferior loan options when compared to non-Hispanic prospective borrowers. Specifically, the NFHA claimed that bank discriminated against prospective borrowers who are Hispanic by failing to provide them with information about loan products or by offering them loan products with less attractive terms, as compared to prospective borrowers who are not Hispanic.
