What must be done in the financial lending markets to ensure fairness in lending practices from minorities?

Question

The USA still struggles with acceptance of diversity, yet our well being as a country is greatly dependent upon the spending habits of minorities. Even with that reliance minorities are still treated like second class citizens when acquiring loans and credit cards. Not every minority has bad credit, just like not every white person has good credit. What will it take for equitable treatment to become a standard protocol in the financial industry?

Answer 1

Education. Period.
I think that by and large, the main reason that minorities are falling victim to predatory loans is because they have NO idea what they are signing. People (and not just minorities, mind you!) need to understand the terms of everything they are signing. There are many times when people are clueless that they've signed up for a balloon mortgage or that the interest rate on their car loan is 20% b/c they have bad credit.
I think education is the key and I'm not so sure that it is the responsibility of the financial lending markets to make sure that the consumers are educated. If people had a better understanding of credit and how it can work both for you and against you, I think there would be a much more level playing field.
As far as the issue of discrimination - something the consumers cannot control - I am not sure of a good solution. It would be ridiculous to require lenders in areas with a high concentration of minorities to meet a certain percentage or quota of loans. It would also be unfathomable to have some sort of kick-back program that rewards lenders for lending money to minorities. Geez. You've got me on that one, kiddo. The problem is very real and the disparity is a crying shame. Discrimination is actually difficult to prove, but I think if more people reported their situations, lenders would keep their noses cleaner.

Answer 2

It already is. In today's world applications are submitted over the net to banks that have computers who make the majority of the decisions.

These computers have no way of knowing what the applicants race is. The decisions they make are based on the person credit profile period.

Add to this that it's a Federal law that you can not discriminate based on race. And it's simply uneducated to say that loan decisions are not equitable.