Boston, MA 06/17/2014 (wallstreetpr) – JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) was sued by the city of Miami on allegations of being involved in discriminatory lending practices.
Minority Discrimination
Miami filed a lawsuit with the city’s federal court last week claiming that the nation’s largest bank has been employing a series of discriminatory lending practice. The claims threaten that these activities have deteriorated foreclosure crisis in minority neighborhoods. According to the filed lawsuit, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has dispersed disproportionate loan amounts to the black and Hispanic neighborhoods, levying burdensome conditions which eventually caused increased foreclosure rates. The city alleged that the bank has been carrying on with such activities at least since 2004.
According to June 13 lawsuit, Miami is now seeking unspecified damages for decreased property taxes and increased municipal services charges. The city cited as many as 2,400 loan cases which led to foreclosure proceedings and was issued by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) during the period 2004 to 2012. Most of these cases involved the minority areas. Additionally, it also claimed an order inhibiting the bank from continuing its practice of lending on racial discriminatory basis.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)’s spokesman, Jason Lobo, said that the filings have no merit. He claimed that the bank has a strong history of providing housing assistance to several low to moderate income families flourishing in south Florida.
Similar Cases
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) and some of the nation’s biggest banks have been facing several similar lawsuits questioning the bank’s practices and means for quite some time now. Last month the city of Providence, Rhode Island sued the U.S. division of Banco Santander, S.A. (ADR) (NYSE:SAN) on allegations that the bank stopped disbursing mortgages in minority neighborhood post the housing bubble burst. Apart from this, cities including Miami and Los Angeles sued banks including Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC). The lawsuits claimed that the banks followed discriminatory policies while first cutting down loan provision for black and Hispanic regions and later over flooding them with predatory mortgages.
