Ex-employees of Wells Fargo come clean

For years, consumer advocates have been bringing attention to the problem of "reverse redlining"- the practice of steering people of color towards high-cost subprime loans when they qualify for more traditional or more affordable loan products.

The City of Baltimore's fair lending lawsuit against Wells Fargo has produced some interesting affidavits from former employees of Wells Fargo. The former employees talk about the tactics used to encourage people of color to choose subprime or no-documentation loan products; the practice of loan officers falsifying loan applications to put borrowers into certain products; the practice of targeting borrowers through Black churches, and outright use of racial slurs around the office.

Read about it at the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, or Public Citizen's Consumer Law and Policy blog.

It is worth noting that state attorneys general may have been able to investigate and uncover lending discrimination by Wells Fargo if not for the Office of the Comptroller of Currency's aggressive assertion of preemption (the OCC opposes any state attempt to investigate the books of a national bank or its operating subsidiary.)