Three African-American mortgage borrowers from Boston accused Countrywide Home Loans Inc. of racial discrimination in a federal lawsuit yesterday, saying the nation’s largest home lender charged them more for subprime mortgages than it charged white borrowers in similar financial situations.
The lawsuit, filed in US Court in Boston, contended Countrywide violated federal housing discrimination laws because the black homeowners in Boston paid higher fees to the network of agents that generate Countrywide’s new customers. The company, the suit said, uses an ‘‘unchecked, subjective surcharge’’ that adds to the total costs of loans for its customers, and black borrowers, it contended, paid more than whites.

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