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Cadence Bank pays $3 million for Fair Housing Act violations

Atlanta, GA
08/30/2021
Fine Amount: 
$3,000,000
Penalty Type: 
Issued by: 

The OCC has issued a Consent Order for the payment of $3,000,000 to Cadence Bank, N.A., Atlanta, Georgia, after finding that—

    (1) From 2014 through 2016 (“Relevant Period”), the Bank did not provide equal access to credit to residents seeking first-lien mortgage loans in majority-minority census tracts (“MMCTs”) and majority-Hispanic census tracts (“MHCTs”) in the Bank’s Houston Assessment Area (“Houston AA”).
    (2) During the Relevant Period, the Bank’s disparate treatment was evidenced through the Bank’s pattern of mortgage application and origination activity, branching history, Mortgage Loan Officer (MLO) structure and operations, and marketing and advertising.
    (3) During the Relevant Period, among other evidence of disparate treatment, examiners found the Bank’s mortgage lending activity in MMCTs and MHCTs in its Houston AA was consistently statistically significantly lower than the lending activity of its peers; only one of the Bank’s 11 branches in its Houston AA was located in an MMCT, and it primarily relied on MLOs to generate mortgage applications but did not have an MLO working in its MMCT branch as it did in other non-MMCT and non-MHCT branches.
    (4) By reason of the foregoing, the Bank engaged in a pattern or practice of violating the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604(a), (b), and 3605(a), and its implementing regulation,
    24 C.F.R. §§ 100.120 and 100.150.

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