VIENNA, Va. –In response to a CNN report alleging bias in its mortgage lending, Navy Federal Credit Union said it has retained a leading civil rights attorney to conduct an investigation.
As CUToday.info reported, CNN said its analysis of home mortgage lending data found the $165-billion Navy Federal approved more than 75% of the White borrowers who applied for a new conventional home purchase mortgage in 2022, but less than 50% of Black borrowers who applied for the same type of loan, based on the most recent data available from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In response, Navy Federal Credit Union issued a statement saying, “We treat the recent allegations very seriously, and we have retained a leading civil rights lawyer, Debo P. Adegbile, former commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and his team to assess our mortgage lending policies and practices and make recommendations to drive further access to home ownership.”
Key Criteria ‘Not Considered’
In its statement, Navy Federal said it takes itsresponsibility to fair lending very seriously and is closely examining the allegations in the recent CNN article.
“The statistics in the article do not appear to have considered several key credit criteria that all financial institutions, including Navy Federal, rely on to assess mortgage applications,” the credit union said. “We are committed to serve all of our members equally, and extending credit to qualified Black applicants and borrowers is a longstanding hallmark of our success. We are deeply committed to consistent and fair lending policies and practices. We are also a national leader in lending to the Black community, ranking third among the leading 50 lenders in the percentage of mortgage loans made to Black borrowers and first among large lenders. This represents more than $3.5 billion in mortgages to Black borrowers in 2022. This is representative of our longstanding commitment to expanding credit and economic opportunity to Black borrowers.”
Trade Groups Issue Statements
As CUToday.info also reported, this week NAFCU, CUNA and the African American Credit Union Coalition issued a joint statement calling the CNN report “misleading,” although the statement did not identify the specific related to how the CNN analysis may have erred.
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