The Trump administration on Wednesday accused Wells Fargo of discriminating against home buyers by creating programs that favored minority applicants for loans. The allegations came in a letter from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to Wells Fargo’s chief executive, Charles Scharf. The letter, signed by Craig W. Trainor, an assistant secretary, said the San Francisco bank was being investigated for violations of the Fair Housing Act.
Trainor cited “repeated public promotion of explicit race-based policies,” including offering Black homeowners lower-cost refinancing and a $150 million credit program “to advance racial equity in homeownership.” He raised the specter of expanding the investigation to include the Department of Justice. “Attempting to close statistical racial gaps in homeownership by doling out loans based on race is no way to do business,” Trainor wrote.
Jennifer Langan, a Wells Fargo spokeswoman, declined to comment. The bank’s shares ended the day 1.5 percent lower. The behavior in question dates to when “under the Biden administration, race-conscious lending programs proliferated throughout the financial sector,” according to the HUD letter. Wells Fargo publicly promoted its minority-focused program in news releases and on its website, but has since deleted many references.
The new investigation adds to the Trump administration’s efforts to punish corporate America for expanding programs aimed at Black Americans after the 2020 protests. Financial institutions have until now mostly escaped the White House’s criticism of race-based programs.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing