Attorney General Josh Shapiro Wednesday told the Senate Appropriations Committee he has opened an investigation into home mortgage lending disparities as a result of a study conducted by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
The report identified lending disparities within racial and ethnic groups which caused people of color to be denied a conventional mortgage far more often than Caucasian applicants. The analysis included data illustrating that one of the widest lending disparities occurs in Philadelphia.
State Treasurer Joe Torsella also announced that his office has opened an official inquiry into three financial institutions for information regarding mortgage approval rates and lending practices.
Torsella sent a letter to three financial institutions-- Wells Fargo, Santander Bank, and PNC Financial Services-- that Treasury currently has a contractual relationship with, and petitioned the institutions to respond to the findings.
“No Pennsylvanian deserves to be held back because of the color of their skin. Home ownership has long been identified as one of the most common ways for the working and middle classes to build wealth, yet that opportunity has for too often and too long been denied to many of us,” said Torsella. “If any financial institution with these practices has a hand in unjustly denying a mortgage to a qualified applicant, this needs to be brought to light.”
