The United States Department of Justice has announced a settlement with Eagle Bank and Trust Co. to resolve allegations of lending discrimination in St. Louis.
The Justice Department filed a consent order Tuesday to resolve allegations that Eagle Bank engaged in a pattern or practice of “redlining” predominantly African-American neighborhoods in and around St. Louis, according to the Justice Department.
According to the Justice Department:
Under the settlement, Eagle Bank will invest $800,000 in a special financing program to increase the amount of credit the bank extends to majority African American areas in the Missouri portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area, spend $75,000 for consumer education and credit repair programs, and spend $100,000 for outreach to potential customers and promotion of their products and services.
Eagle Bank will also open two locations to serve predominantly African American areas within the Missouri portion of the St. Louis metropolitan area, and will conduct fair lending training for its employees. The agreement prohibits Eagle Bank from discriminating on the basis of race or color in any aspect of a residential real estate-related or credit transaction.
The lawsuit originated from information gathered by the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunities Council and provided to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC conducted an investigation and referred this matter to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Eagle Bank has a branch at 2521 S. Brentwood Boulevard, Brentwood.
Read the full Justice Department announcement.
Eagle Bank received a “needs to improve” rating from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on its 2012 Community Reinvestment Act evaluation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in 2013. The FDIC said Eagle Bank needed to improve its efforts “to meet the credit needs of its assessment area, including low- and moderate- income neighborhoods.”