Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC)’s Countrywide mortgage business is being sued by the state of Illinois for allegedly discriminating against Latino and Black borrowers, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Illinois state attorney general Lisa Madigan has filed a suit alleging that Countrywide disproportionately steered minorities into high-risk subprime mortgages. “Countrywide’s illegal discriminatory lending practices destroyed the wealth and dreams of thousands of African American and Latino homeowners,” Madigan said in the statement. “Bank of America needs to be held accountable by taking financial responsibility for cleaning up the devastation of the predatory company that it chose to take over.”
In 2006, then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Countrywide for similar practices. Then, the lender settled and compensated minority borrowers and adopted measures to prevent discriminatory pricing. Last month, Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) paid $108 million to settle federal charges that Countrywide collected inappropriate fees from 200,000 borrowers facing foreclosure. Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) is also still in the middle of an $8 billion settlement for issuing predatory loans in a suit filed by Madigan and 10 other states.
