Lizeth GeorgeThe National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) has recently published a report on credit union’s mortgage lending to minority borrowers. This report utilized the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data to see what the mortgage market is like for these minority borrowers. Some of the key takeaways of this report are that around only 20-30% of all credit union mortgage loans are made to minority borrowers and that minorities had a higher likelihood of being denied a mortgage outright.
Given the NCUA’s recent pushes for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and other similar pro-diversity statements, this report should be of concern for credit unions. The NCUA has made it clear that any discrimination in the field of lending is unacceptable. Overt discrimination is luckily very rare in the financial space; however, the government has made a strong push to find situations where minorities face disparate impacts due to credit unions policy, whatever that policy may be. Credit unions should review their lending standards to ensure that they are not having a disparate impact on their minority members.
If you would like to read the full report it can be found here.
If you have any questions about this report, please contact David Pace.
