Mortgage Lending Service Area Disclosure Register

PROBLEM: A bank can quietly avoid lending in minority neighborhoods for years while its branch map tells the story in plain sight. The DOJ and North Carolina reached a $13.5 million settlement with First National Bank of Pennsylvania on February 5, 2024, resolving redlining claims that the bank avoided providing home loans and mortgage services in majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Charlotte and Winston-Salem from 2017 to 2021, including an $11.75 million loan subsidy fund, and requiring it to open three new branches in those neighborhoods.

SOLUTION: Add a mortgage lending service-area disclosure register to IBM Cloud Ideas that maps every branch, loan officer, and mortgage application against neighborhood demographics, publishes the service-area gap analysis quarterly, and flags any sustained pattern in which a lender's applications fall far below peer lenders in majority-minority neighborhoods.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — DOJ/North Carolina $13.5M settlement with First National Bank of Pennsylvania, Feb. 5, 2024, resolving redlining claims (Charlotte and Winston-Salem, 2017–2021); $11.75M loan subsidy fund; three new branches required. Source: DOJ press release, Feb. 5, 2024.