The parent company of Cadence Bank agreed Monday to pay roughly $8.5 million in fines and community investments to settle charges of lending discrimination brought by the Justice Department and a federal bank regulator, The Hill reported. Cadence Bancorporation will pay a $3 million fine to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and $5.5 million to expand credit opportunities for Black and Hispanic borrowers to resolve accusations of “redlining” minority customers in the Houston metropolitan area. From 2013 to 2017, prosecutors alleged that Cadence Bank concentrated “nearly all its branches, loan officers, marketing and outreach in majority-white neighborhoods,” according to the Justice Department complaint, despite serving one of the most diverse metropolitan areas in the U.S. All but one of Cadence’s 13 bank branches were located in majority-white census tracts even though 56 percent of census tracts in the Houston metro area were majority-Black and majority-Hispanic, according to the complaint. Cadence had only one branch in 2012 but gained 12 with the acquisition of Encore Bank in 2013, all but one of which were located in majority-white neighborhoods.
