This article is about a business that has been accused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department of redlining, which is when banks choke off lending to minorities. Hudson City Savings Bank approved 1,886 mortgages to areas in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in 2014, while only 25 of those loans were to African Americans. Hudson agreed to pay over $30 million to settle the lawsuit, although they deny doing any wrong.
Redlining was very common in the 1960s, when banks would openly starve minorities of receiving home loans. It was even backed by the federal government. Redlining became illegal in the U.S. in the 1970s, but that hasn’t stopped businesses from continuing it. They typically try to hide it, by placing their branches outside of minority communities. Today, it has started to return in the United States, and it is an issue that needs to be figured out.
