"Wells Fargo Accused of Anti-Black Discrimination in Lawsuit Backed by Willie Brown, Ben Crump", 17 May 2023

A medical doctor, a business executive, a playwright and teacher and a former banker—they were all educated, economically prosperous professionals who owned their own homes. Despite that, they say Wells Fargo denied them the opportunity to refinance their mortgages or borrow money against their homes.

The reason? They believe the bank illegally discriminated against them because they are Black

On Wednesday, plaintiffs in a lawsuit gathered in San Francisco, where Wells Fargo is headquartered, along with prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and former Mayor Willie Brown, to publicize their suit against the bank...

According to Crump, the alleged discrimination by Wells Fargo may have affected 750,000 people of color across America...

The plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed in March, allege that Wells Fargo approved significantly fewer Black borrowers for mortgages, charged them higher interest rates and frequently denied them opportunities to refinance.

Wells Fargo approved only 51.8% of Black borrowers who applied for a mortgage in 2020 while approving 67.1% of white ones, their complaint states.

That same year, the bank approved only 47% of applications to refinance from Black mortgage holders, compared with 53% from Latino applicants, 67% from Asian ones and 71% from white ones.

The plaintiffs say these disparities are greater than with other major lenders and indicate racial bias. 

Wells Fargo denies engaging in discrimination.

“We are confident that we follow relevant government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) guidelines in our decision making and that our underwriting practices are consistently applied regardless of a customer’s race or ethnicity,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “These allegations against Wells Fargo stand in stark contrast to the company’s significant and long-term commitment to closing the minority homeownership gap.”...