what to do if you suspect discrimination
if you feel you ve been discriminated against at any point during a credit transaction there are several steps you can take examples of equal credit opportunity act ecoa enforcementone common violation of the ecoa is charging higher rates or fees to black indigenous and people of color bipoc applicants in july 2012 the department of justice doj reached a settlement of more than 175 million with wells fargo bank for a pattern or practice of discriminatory lending black and hispanic borrowers who qualified for loans were charged higher fees or rates or were improperly placed into subprime loans which are more costly 20in january 2017 a 53 million settlement was made against jpmorgan chase for lending discrimination based on race and national origin the doj found that the bank s brokers charged higher interest rates to bipoc borrowers than white borrowers in the run up to and during the 2008 financial crisis 21on november 8 2023 citibank was ordered by the cfpb to pay a 24 5 million civil penalty as a result of citibank s discriminatory practices against credit card applicants of armenian national origin between 2015 and 2021 22according to the cfpb citibank subjected these applicants to extra scrutiny negative assessments and frequent denials additionally the cfpb said that citibank failed to provide adequate reasons for these actions violating ecoa and the consumer financial protection act cfpa citibank is required to compensate affected consumers with 1 4 million and implement measures to prevent future discrimination 23who supervises the equal credit opportunity act ecoa the consumer financial protection bureau cfpb writes rules to implement ecoa and supervises institutions e g banks and lending companies to ensure they follow the law several other federal agencies share the job of supervising for compliance including the the cfpb enforces ecoa with the agencies listed above the department of justice and the federal trade commission 24