The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applicants
The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applicants
www.cnn.com
The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applicants | CNN Business
A major credit union serving military members and veterans rejected more than half of its Black conventional mortgage applicants
This is the important bit, so someone can't argue differences in loan applications.
Not going to lie, my first thought was to wonder whether and how they controlled for this.
But I took a step back and reminded myself that REDLINING HAPPENED. Well into the modern day. It was only outlawed in 1968, and there's evidence that banks continued to do it through the 70s.
It's absolutely no surprise that there are still disparities, and I would be further unsurprised to find out that the deciding factor was zip code.
Same for car insurance. I moved down the road and that resulted me crossing a zip code line. New zip code is less white so my rates hiked. Of course they denied everything.
This is the internet, my friend. Someone absolutely can still argue that in face of the facts.
And as long as people like me have a heartbeat we will crucify shit dicks like that until they flip their accounts private and cry about needing a safespace.
This is the Internet. You can post comprehensive, overwhelming, irrefutable proof and people will still argue.
Did the article say anything about their payment history? That looks like the only variable they didn't mention.
I noticed the article indicated that the analysis didn't include credit score, available cash deposit, and relationship history with the lender. Honestly, it is usually credit score and cash on hand that gets you approved to receive a loan, debt to income ratio to determine maximum loan amount, and property value to pass underwriting requirements.
CNN's response is basically, we don't have the credit scores because it isn't in the public data, and sort of glosses over it from there.
Now, I'm all for rooting out implicit and systematic bias, especially with systems that have profound effects on life trajectory, and I think credit scores are particularly prone to disadvantage minorities, but I feel like CNN really could have done better here. I know they asked the bank for credit score data, but the bank can't release that information to a third party like that. I would have liked to see CNN being in some more expertise on the subject.
I'm contrast both NPR and NYT have done much more thorough investigative journalism on these topics. NPR in particular did a great podcast on how black home owners were routinely having their homes appraised for markedly less than white peers, and NYT covered discrepancies in underwriting outcomes even when credit history was the same.
I think CNN saw the easy article against this particular bank and took it to fill column space.
TBH, this was my first thought when I read the headline. Surely they can't be so bald-faced racist as to just deny someone because they're black, they'd be caught easily. So I assumed it must be something like lower credit scores or some other confounding factor, which, to be clear, is still the result of racism. But like a deeper, more systemic racism. That it's apparently not feels more concerning to me, like they just didn't think it would be a problem if they got caught.
That's exactly why I read the article!
There's more variables than just the ones listed that are considered when giving out loans.
For example, this article doesn't mention anything about credit score or collection accounts being the same. Credit score is THE biggest factor, this article is pure speculation.
True, but they didn't list all 12, so credit score could be part of it.