GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Wisconsin’s largest home-based bank has reached a settlement with the federal government over alleged racial discrimination in its mortgages.
Associated Bank of Green Bay denied wrongdoing. Still, the company said it would issue almost $200 million in home mortgage loans in minority areas in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois over the next three years.
Mark Belling of WISN Radio in Milwaukee aired some of the details late Friday.
Tuesday, Associated said it was accused by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of denying loan applications from a disproportionate share of Hispanics and blacks from 2008 through 2010. Those were the most severe years of the Great Recession.
“HUD” said it analyzed Associated’s mortgage lending, and found it had a smaller share of the market in higher minority areas than others.
The Chicago market will get three-fourths of the mortgage lending that’s outlined in the settlement, or around $144 million. Metro Milwaukee gets $36 million, Racine about $1.5 million, and the Minneapolis-St. Paul region about $3.6 million.
Some of the loans will have reduced interest rates, closing costs, and required down payments.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
