Minority Homeowners Reimbursed for Unfair Loan Fees

Newsday (07/17/08); Yan, Ellen
GreenPoint Mortgage has paid more than $900,000 in restitution settlements to 276 black and Latino homeowners who were overcharged on their home loans. The reimbursement is part of an settlement reached in March 2007 that also requires GreenPoint to improve the way it monitors brokers and to take action against those who discriminate against minority home buyers, if it starts making mortgages again. Federally required mortgage data revealed that GreenPoint used independent mortgage brokers who charged minority borrowers thousands of dollars more for loans from 2004 through 2006 than whites, even when credit scores and other criteria were not factors. "GreenPoint was pleased to put this ... inquiry behind it over 15 months ago," said Tatiana Stead, a spokeswoman for Capital One Financial, which acquired the mortgage servicer in December 2006.