topic Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time in Credit in the News

New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

MikeyMagic — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 04:05:09 GMT

I can't believe this is still happening in 2023/2024 - CNN just had a report that NFCU denies black applicants mortgages 52% of the time compares with denying only 23% of white applicants.

They featured an impressive black man CEO entrepreneur who had scores in the 700 and was initially conditionally approved for a mortgage with NFCU to buy his dream house, then 2 weeks before closing he got a denial letter from them. He ended up going to another bank to get his mortgage. CNN then did a deep study and found NFCU is the worst by far when comparing white vs black mortgage approvals.

Nobody from NFCU would speak to CNN on camera but gave some BS statement denying everything and how they are committed to equality smh.

Pretty damning and it's terrible.

The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applicants

babbles — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 01:23:33 GMT

when I go for a loan of any kind with navy fed or USAA, who are very tough on your paperwork, I never have an issue despite in the minority; low dti, never missed a payment, very high credit scores across the board, under 2% credit utilization, good military retirement income but back in 93 or so I filed BK and stayed away from them both for about 2 years or so and when I did apply for something (through NFCU) it was a low amount and I wrote a letter with the app and what do you know, they approved the loan, haven’t crossed them since, you can’t go in there with bad paper! bottom line!! so not everything is race

i think it's a matter of getting educated on how to make your credit profile better and I have learned so much on these FICO threads from so many people over the years!!

sorry if this is a duplicate thread!

Re: The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applic

markbeiser — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 02:46:17 GMT

I saw that "news" making the rounds, but have not had time to check and see what the numbers that mean something actually are.
If you have a 580 credit score, high DTI, and little to no money for a down payment, your conventional mortgage application is going to be rejected no matter your skin tone...
I'm among the whitest white boys that ever whited, but I still couldn't get anything better than a payday loan when my finances and credit score were a disaster!
Race baiting headlines only distract from the real problems we still have in America.

Having said that, even though it is officially not a thing anymore, redlining is still a thing way to often, but not every surface level unequal outcome is actually the result of racism.

Re: The nation’s largest credit union rejected more than half its Black conventional mortgage applic

babbles — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 04:15:24 GMT

Good testimony! I'm sure you're on the right path now, Navy Fed is the largest credit union in the world I believe and like i said before, if your credit profile is not right, you ain't getting iit! Been with them a whopping 36 years and that's the way it's been! Where did CNN get these numbers?? I would like to hear "the other side of the story" from NFCU

forgot one little point, I have received the blue letter of denial from them plenty times over the years, never thought it was because of my skin tone but it was my credit file was not within their lending standards at that time i applied for credit

And the article dosen't say why the 50% were rejected?? they wont tell us but I intend to write to NFCU tomorrow, I just don't believe this

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

GZG — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 05:47:28 GMT

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/14/business/navy-federal-credit-union-black-applicants-invs/index.html

I didn't even know there were still aspects of the mortgage underwriting process where somebody could go out of their way to use race to influence lending decisions

I wonder how much, if at all, if not all of this, could be explained away just based on who is applying at navy vs. who applies at other banks, the data is definitely concerning though.

I do wonder how much of it is 'unfortunate' as opposed to anything malicious on behalf of any manual underwriting at nfcu

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

LakeLife — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 12:36:20 GMT

I went through the mortgage process with NFCU two years ago for our lake house fully online and never stepped into a branch. The only time I came face to face with anyone was at closing with a representative from the title company. I don't recall race being a question on any form I filled out for the mortgage. NFCU did not know if I was black/white/pink or purple.

As anyone with a bit of financial knowledge can tell you, credit score is but a sliver of the information they use to determine credit worthiness for a mortgage. That score in the OP tells me nothing of DTI, mortgage scores, time at employer, and past mortgage experiences. Every tictok "influencer" and MLM participant on social media calls themsevles an "entrepreneur", so that BS means nothing to me.

I'm not buying into this at all.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

MikeyMagic — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:05:30 GMT

@LakeLife wrote:
I went through the mortgage process with NFCU two years ago for our lake house fully online and never stepped into a branch. The only time I came face to face with anyone was at closing with a representative from the title company. I don't recall race being a question on any form I filled out for the mortgage. NFCU did not know if I was black/white/pink or purple.

As anyone with a bit of financial knowledge can tell you, credit score is but a sliver of the information they use to determine credit worthiness for a mortgage. That score in the OP tells me nothing of DTI, mortgage scores, time at employer, and past mortgage experiences. Every tictok "influencer" and MLM participant on social media calls themsevles an "entrepreneur", so that BS means nothing to me.

I'm not buying into this at all.

Well I watched the CNN 5 minute feature about and I definitely believe it. NFCU would not speak on camera about any of the allegations - hmmmmm I wonder why not. Sorry you don't want to believe a deep investigative report done but I certainly do. 78% of white applicants approved and only 48% of black applicants approved screams race issues.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

markbeiser — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:42:37 GMT

I would caution that a 5 minute "news feature" centered around a single example of someone who was denied a mortgage is a rather low information foundation to base an opinion on the matter.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

MikeyMagic — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:55:04 GMT

@markbeiser wrote:
I would caution that a 5 minute "news feature" centered around a single example of someone who was denied a mortgage is a rather low information foundation to base an opinion on the matter.

It was 5 minutes on CNN but the study was an in-depth investigation into NFCU and they were found to be by far to be the worst out of 50 mortgage lenders in the discrepancies between white and black applicants.

And the fact that nobody from NFCU would speak to CNN and answer questions all the more makes me believe it.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

LakeLife — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:57:47 GMT

@markbeiser wrote:
I would caution that a 5 minute "news feature" centered around a single example of someone who was denied a mortgage is a rather low information foundation to base an opinion on the matter.

But, but, but it was a "deep" investigated report!

Plus, it was CNN, so the allegations must be true!

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

MikeyMagic — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 14:09:55 GMT

@LakeLife wrote:
@markbeiser wrote:
I would caution that a 5 minute "news feature" centered around a single example of someone who was denied a mortgage is a rather low information foundation to base an opinion on the matter.
But, but, but it was a "deep" investigated report!

Plus, it was CNN, so the allegations must be true!

You're right, it's obvious CNN made the whole thing up!! We should all listen to you I mean, it's CNN so according to you it's all fake lol.

Unbelievable.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

Hex — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 14:29:17 GMT

When a business (or a person) sees a non traditional first name they sometimes make assumptions about the person with the name. If you write or state the "wrong" name when you go looking for an apartment you might not get a reply. There have been studies that show this. It's very sad. First names are only one of the things that can cause this.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

Hex — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 15:20:31 GMT

in employment:

https://fortune.com/2023/09/24/affirmative-action-race-discrimination-hiring-black-sounding-names-study/amp/

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

Hex — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 15:29:12 GMT

in renting:

https://www.vox.com/22815563/rental-housing-market-racism-discrimination

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

pizzadude — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 18:30:51 GMT

Thanks everyone for sharing the links to these stories. I've combined a couple of seperate threads all of which are on the same topic.

I'd like to issue a public service annoucement to eveyone to be respectful of other people's opinions and comments as this is a volitile issue, and also please keep in mind the five things we don't talk about.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

MikeyMagic — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 19:12:54 GMT

"Navy Federal Credit Union, which lends to military servicemembers and veterans, approved more than 75% of the White borrowers who applied for a new conventional home purchase mortgage in 2022, according to the most recent data available from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But less than 50% of Black borrowers who applied for the same type of loan were approved.

While many banks also approved White applicants at higher rates than Black borrowers, the nearly 29-percentage-point gap in Navy Federal’s approval rates was the widest of any of the 50 lenders that originated the most mortgage loans last year.

The disparity remains even among White and Black applicants who had similar incomes and debt-to-income ratios. Notably, Navy Federal approved a slightly higher percentage of applications from White borrowers making less than $62,000 a year than it did of Black borrowers making $140,000 or more.

A deeper statistical analysis performed by CNN found that Black applicants to Navy Federal were more than twice as likely to be denied as White applicants even when more than a dozen different variables – including income, debt-to-income ratio, property value, downpayment percentage, and neighborhood characteristics – were the same."

This is the crux from the CNN investigation and it's shameful what NFCU did. The fact that white applicants were still approved at a higher level with NFCU making $62,500 or less compared to blacks making $140,000 or more is the most telling of all that NFCU discriminated greatly against black applicants. Awful.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

MikeyMagic — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 19:21:14 GMT

"José Loya, a UCLA professor who has studied racial gaps in mortgage approvals and reviewed CNN’s analysis, called the disparities in Navy Federal’s lending “alarming.”

“It does surprise me that they’re doing significantly worse than other big lenders,” because of Navy Federal’s status as a credit union, he said."

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

MikeyMagic — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 19:29:48 GMT

"The credit union has previously faced scrutiny over racial disparities. An analysis by the nonprofit news outlet The Markup using 2019 data found that Navy Federal was among the large lenders with the biggest racial gaps in approval rates – and CNN found that the gap has only grown since then. Navy Federal said at the time that The Markup’s analysis did not accurately reflect its practices.

Navy Federal has also faced legal action over allegations of aggressive lending practices and other banking violations. In 2016, it paid about $28.5 million in redress and fines after the federal government found it had falsely threatened borrowers over debt collection and froze them out of their accounts."

I think the take away of all this for me at least is this great reputation NFCU seems to have by credit card holders(literally all I've heard or read about since starting my credit journey)should be re-examined.

I can't qualify or get into this credit union and after reading this investigation into them I'm glad as hell I can't. This shouldn't be happening in 2023 about to be 2024.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

markbeiser — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 21:31:06 GMT

@MikeyMagic wrote:

This is the crux from the CNN investigation and it's shameful what NFCU did. The fact that white applicants were still approved at a higher level with NFCU making $62,500 or less compared to blacks making $140,000 or more is the most telling of all that NFCU discriminated greatly against black applicants. Awful.

I'll have to look into it more when I have time over the weekend, looks like there may be some there there though.
I wasn't dismissing it as not being a thing, just experience has taught me to not leap to any judgements based on the headline when it comes to this subject matter, among others.
Very often there is a lot of cherry picking to suit a narrative, but redlining and racial profiling still exist, even though it officially doesn't exist.

Re: New CNN report shows NFCU only approves mortgages to Black applicants 48% of the time

CreditCuriosity — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 21:50:08 GMT

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but CNN and for that matter FOX are entertainment and opinion more than news these days. I really don't see NFCU discriminating as majority of their home loans goto Fannie/Freddie just like any other one and same criteria applies to get approved and goes through AUW system only difference is NFCU services them even when sold off, but they are indeed sold off. Also just IMO media is trying to devide the country on things such as this or so it seems to me and many others. Make of it what you want and if true it will play out in courts and see what the courts and evidence say.