Discrimination & Banking Activity in Urban Mortgage Financing

DISCRIMINATION AND COMMERCIAL BANKING ACTIVITY IN URBAN MORTGAGE FINANCING

Discrimination in the extension of mortgage credit is volatile issue in the United States (Smith, 1993, p. 65). Although federal government efforts to end such discrimination have been pursued for two decades, critics contend that much work is still required (Foust, 1992, p. 43). This study examines the issue with a particular emphasis on discrimination in urban mortgage financing.

Housing Discrimination in the United States

Discrimination in mortgage lending is a part of the larger problem of housing discrimination. Housing discrimination exists in the United States with respect to a variety of factors. The most publicized form of discrimination is that associated with racial and ethnic background. Such discrimination is also based, at times, on age (adults only restrictions), sexual preference, and behavior.

The means by which discrimination is applied to housing vary. Overt refusal to rent or sell property to an individual because of racial or ethnic background is not only illegal in the United States, it is also relatively rare. Such legal prohibitions are often circumvented in a number of ways, however, such as (1) a failure to show certain properties to certain individuals, and (2) rejection on the basis of other factors that appear unrelated to racial or ethnic background, but which, in fact, may be contrived, and may not be applied equally to white applicants. A failure

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who were, more often than not, one and the same. The CRA was designed, in part, to assure that housingrelated credit would be extended to those from whom mortgage lending institutions accepted deposits, assuming that such individuals were otherwise eligible for such credit. Four federal financial supervisory agenciesthe Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Home Loan Bank Boardshared initial authority and responsibility for the implementation of the CRA. Since the development of the savings and loan crisis in the late1980s, the responsibilities of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board have been assumed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Although each of these agencies was separately responsible for the development and issuance of implementing regulations, in fact, such regulations were developed and issued jointly. The CRA requires the regulating agencies to take into account an institution's record in meeting its community's credit needs, when evaluating applications for either the creation or the relocation of domestic branch offices or for merger with or acquisition of another institution (Schiller, 1993, p. 1

Category: Government - D