Payments

Wells Fargo asks for more time in racial discrimination lawsuit

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March 6, 2024

Wells Fargo filed a motion asking for more time to respond to three reports submitted by plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit that alleges racial discrimination in lending practices. The bank said it needs time to "understand the bases for plaintiff's expert options," and if the request is not granted, the institution says it will, " suffer substantial harm and be materially prejudiced."

The lawsuit, which was filed by Dennis S. Ellis of Ellis George LLP claims "that Black and other minority applicants had their applications intentionally and disproportionately denied, faced unjustified delays in the processing of their applications, and were given less favorable terms, which resulted in Wells Fargo systematically engaging in a new form of redlining that harmed Plaintiffs based on their race and ethnicity."

Wells Fargo is asking Federal Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California for three weeks to respond to the experts in the class action lawsuit, which could have as many as 750,000 members.

"Wells Fargo had ample opportunity to address the effect of its lending practices and the harm it was causing as a company to hundreds of thousands of minorities but chose to do nothing to alter its policies that were denying loans to those citizens at record disparities as opposed to White Americans. Wells Fargo should not be afforded three additional weeks to answer the Plaintiffs' experts. The fact that Wells Fargo years after instituting the discriminatory policies that have caused so much damage to its minority mortgage loan applicants still has no answer for its actions is appalling," Ellis said in the release.

Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said that that Wels Fargo had "statistically significant disparities" with the rates which Black borrowers got pricing exceptions compared to other customers.

Ellis said that Wells Fargo denied mortgages to more than 73,000 Black applicants in a four-year period.

At the time of the writing of this story, Wells Fargo has not responded to a request for comment.