By: Michelle Patana
Foreclosures continue to plague homeowners across the country, and several consumer groups are encouraging lawmakers to add fair lending compliance rules to the national mortgage settlement to ensure that all demographics and communities are receiving relief.
The Foreclosure Working Group of Americans for Financial Reform is appealing to lawmakers to include information regarding race, ethnicity, gender, geography and other details into mortgage settlement rules, which it argues will help those who oversee relief efforts ensure that that hardest-hit communities are receiving foreclosure assistance, according to American Banker.
"There is no basis for the banks to decline to report similar information here as well," the advocacy groups states in a letter, according to the news source. "The terms of the settlement agreement prohibit banks from discriminating against any geographic group or protected class of borrowers. Unfortunately, reports suggest that such discrimination may be taking place."
The nation's five largest servicers, attorneys and bank consultants argue that no discrimination has taken place regarding relief efforts, but many consumer groups have noted that those low-income communities most heavily been impacted by the foreclosure crisis have received aid disproportionately.