OCC fines national bank $25 million for violating Fair Housing Act

Lending OCC Fair Lending Fair Housing Act Enforcement

On March 19, the OCC announced that a national bank has agreed to pay a $25 million civil money penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act. According to the OCC’s consent order, (i) from August 2011 to April 2015, the bank did not properly train loan officers about available mortgage discounts under its Relationship Loan Program (RLP); (ii) from August 2011 to November 2014, the bank failed to provide explicit instructions within their written guidelines that employees should offer those discounts to all eligible customers; and (iii) from August 2011 to November 2014, the bank did not require loan officers to document the reason for a customer’s rejection. Moreover, according to the OCC, the bank did not require loan officers to inform customers about potential mortgage discounts from August 2011 to January 2015. As a result, the OCC stated that certain borrowers allegedly did not receive RLP benefits for which they were eligible and were adversely affected on the basis of their race, color, national origin, and/or sex. The bank—which did not admit nor deny the allegations and self-reported the problems in 2015—initiated and has nearly completed a reimbursement plan, which will deliver roughly $24 million in restitution to the approximately 24,000 borrowers who may have missed out on the appropriate RLP benefit.