EthnicMajority

(Miami Herald) In the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history, the Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit discriminated against minority homebuyers, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

The agreement resolves a civil complaint that the mortgage lender charged black and Hispanic borrowers higher fees and steered them into costlier mortgages than other buyers from 2004 to 2008, a period when the company originated millions of home loans.

It also marks Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America’s latest step to move past the mortgage-related troubles that have pummeled its bottom line and stock price since acquiring Countrywide in 2008.

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(Asian Journal) Officials from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are urging members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community to report housing and lending discrimination against them.

According to the HUD, the rate of housing discrimination against members of the AAPIcommunity is comparable to that experienced of other minority groups like Hispanics and African Americans, however, only 1 percent of AAPI’s filed a complaint to the HUD. John Trasvina, the assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, said it’s important for members of the AAPIcommunity to report such discrimination if they believe it is happening to them.

“As we mentioned, the level and type of discrimination against Asians in buying and lending is comparable to that of other [minority] races but it is often unspoken, unsaid and it is unaddressed,” said Trasvina during a press conference at the HUD office in Downtown Los Angeles.

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