“If B of A was telling the truth why did it settle then”, say Mark Gorge of Charlotte, N.C.

"We discontinued Countrywide products and practices that were not in keeping with our commitment and will continue to resolve and put behind us the remaining Countrywide issues," Frahm said.

The United States' complaint says that Countrywide “was aware” that the fees and interest rates that its loan officers were charging discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers, but failed to impose meaningful limits or guidelines to stop it. By diverting certain borrowers into subprime loans from 2004 to 2007, the complaint alleges, Countrywide and B of A "harmed" those qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers by forcing them to pay more.

Subprime loans generally carried costlier terms, i.e prepayment penalties and significantly higher adjustable interest rates that increased suddenly after two or three years, making the payments unaffordable and leaving the borrowers at a much higher risk of foreclosure.

B of A HURT AMERICA!

"Countrywide's actions contributed to the housing crisis, hurt entire communities, and denied families access to the American dream," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

The settlement amount will be used to “compensate thousands of victims” of Countrywide's discriminatory mortgage loans from 2004 through 2007, when Countrywide originated millions of residential mortgage loans as the nation's largest single-family mortgage lenders. “B of A basically continued the practice of discrimination”, says Tom Adam of Charlotte, a civil rights advocate for African Americans.

“Thank God the Department of Justice investigated it and forced Bank of America to stop this type of lending discrimination. It sends a clear message to other financial institutions that they should not discriminate against people based on the color of their skin. This is a huge victory”, he said.

Lupe Lopez says “The discrimination against Hispanic and Latino Americans by B of A was systemic and ongoing. The DOJ investigation and lawsuit helped shine light on this practice and busted this racket. The settlement is proof of guilt, as far as I am concerned...we hope this sends a clear message to other banks that such behavior will not be tolerated.”

Robert Tilford