January 12, 2024

Wyden, Colleagues Call for a Review of Navy Federal After Reported Racial Disparities in Mortgage Lending

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, along with his colleagues Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Jack Reed (D-RI), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Raphael Warnock (D-GA); Tina Smith (D-MN); John Fetterman (D-PA); Tim Kaine (D-VA); Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV); and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to review the concerning gap in mortgage approval rates between White applicants and Black and Hispanic applicants at Navy Federal Credit Union reported in December. 

Navy Federal, the nation’s largest credit union, has more than 13 million members, including servicemembers of all military branches, veterans, Department of Defense civilian employees, and their relatives. In a statistical analysis performed by CNN, they 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, down payment percentage, and neighborhood characteristics – were the same. In 2022, Navy Federal Credit Union originated 1,769 mortgages in Oregon.

“When denial rates for Black and Hispanic applicants at one institution appear to be drastically higher than the national average and higher than their rates for similarly situated white borrowers, it raises questions about whether its mortgage lending practices comply with federal fair housing and fair lending laws and regulations,” the Senators wrote. “Navy Federal’s members have made countless sacrifices in their service to our country. We must do all we can to ensure illegal barriers are not placed on their path to homeownership.”

You can read the full letter here.