Bank Agrees to Pay $9 Million to Resolve Lending Discrimination Allegations

The Justice Department has reached an agreement to resolve allegations of lending discrimination against Park National Bank.

Park National, which is headquartered in Newark, Ohio, has been accused of engaged in a “pattern or practice of lending discrimination by ‘redlining’ in the Columbus area, according to a Justice Department spokesperson.

From at least 2015 to 2021, Park National was accused of failing provide mortgage lending services by redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in the Columbus, according to the complaint filed in federal court. Lenders were allegedly concentrated on majority-white neighborhoods and failed to take “any meaningful measures to compensate for its lack of physical presence” in communities of color.

Read the source article at whio.com