Redlining lawsuit says Black, Latino borrowers in North Carolina discriminated against by bank

NORTH CAROLINA -- First National Bank of Pennsylvania discriminated against Black and Latino homebuyers in North Carolina for a period of at least four years, the Justice Department said Monday, the latest in a long list of banks who have been caught redlining.

The Justice Department said FNB will pay $13.5 million to settle the redlining charges, of which the bulk will go into a fund to help subsidize loans for Black and Latino borrowers in Charlotte and Winston-Salem, two housing markets where the DOJ found discrimination.

In its complaint, the DOJ alleges that First National closed branches in majority-minority neighborhoods, failed to provide mortgage services to Black and Latino potential borrowers, and ignored entire neighborhoods for potential lending. The DOJ found that lenders of similar size and scope to First National did two to four times as much lending to minority borrowers between 2017 and 2021 as First National.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein released this statement about the settlement: "When banks discriminate, it means hardworking people can't buy a house, start a business, or invest in their futures. I want every person who calls North Carolina home to have a fair shot, and I'm pleased that this settlement will create better borrowing opportunities for all North Carolinians."

The case comes from when FNB bought Yadkin Bank, a regional bank in the Carolinas, in 2017. While FNB says the bad behavior happened at Yadkin before the acquisition, the DOJ said that any bank that buys another bank should be held accountable for the acquired bank's actions.

"The playing field isn't level, and that is not what we want for the people of North Carolina," said Stein.

This is the 13th redlining settlement that the Biden Administration has brought against banks since 2021. Under Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Justice Department has created a Redlining Taskforce to focus on racial discrimination in financial services in a way that few administrations have done so in the past.

WATCH | What is 'redlining' and how it doomed generations of Black families in Durham

The lines of housing discrimination here in central North Carolina were often drawn in red. Redlining often resulted in modern-day problems of housing inequities.

The DOJ brought the largest redlining lawsuit in history in 2023 against Los Angeles-based City National Bank, which was also found to have discriminated against Black and Latino communities over a similar period, from 2017 to 2020.

SEE ALSO | Thousands of racial covenants found in Durham housing deeds

or the last three years, dozens have worked on the project coined 'Hacking History'. The team has shifted through hundreds of thousands of deeds and found racist language in deeds for homes and even cemeteries.

WATCH | Redlining in reverse: Gentrification's impact on Triangle's historically Black neighborhoods