Civil Rights champion Reverend Al Sharpton and attorney Ben Crump announced a class action lawsuit Thursday against bank Navy Federal Credit Union for allegedly discriminating against veterans of color.
Sharpton held the emotional press conference inside of the National Action Network’s House of Justice in Harlem on Feb. 22, standing alongside those who say they were victims of practice that knowingly chose to treat clients of color unfairly based on their race or ethnicity.
“They fought for a country to come home and be discriminated against with something as basic as a mortgage,” Sharpton said. “The outrage that has been done to people that have served and protected this country to be treated in this way.”
The lawsuit alleges that the Navy Federal Credit Union — which has more than 13 million member-owners, most of whom are either active or retired members of the armed services — denied more than half of all mortgage applications received from Black applicants.
Crump charged that only 48% percent of Black borrowers were approved, while Latino borrowers were only approved 56% of the time. White borrowers, however, approved 77% of the time.
“That’s a 29% Black-white approval gap, which is the largest of any of the major lending institutions in America,” Crump decried. “The complaint shows that Navy Federal must have known of the discrimination problems.”
One by one, some of those denied by Navy Federal Credit Union at the press conference Thursday recounted their experiences and the hardships they suffered because of the alleged discrimination — with a number of them breaking down in tears.
Christina Hill, who says she enlisted in the Navy in 1990, started banking with Navy Federal Credit Union since they had branches at her base. Hill said she applied for a loan in 2020 to make improvements to her home but was denied despite meeting all necessary qualifications.
“I felt defeated. This is the first home I’ve ever owned. And I wanted to make improvements to leave the home to my family. My pride was shattered in Navy Federal, my bank for over 30 years would not give me a loan. I did not believe that,” Hill said, tears streaming down her face.
In another incident, Carl Carr said he received mortgage pre-approval and then conditional approval from the Navy Federal Credit Union — but just two days before the scheduled closing on the home he planned to buy, the bank suddenly denied him the loan.
“[Good] DTI (debt-to-income ratio), cash in the bank — we were the ideal applicants,” Carr said. “Navy Federal discriminated against us because of our color. Navy Federal this is wrong.”
But a spokesperson for Navy Federal Credit Union said that they serve their customers fairly, and will respond in court to the accusations made Thursday.
“As a not-for-profit credit union, Navy Federal is committed to serving each and every one of our members fairly, and we work daily to help expand economic opportunity and access to credit for our diverse community of members. Black borrowers make up one in four of our members, and we are proud of the fact Navy Federal ranks first among large lenders in the percentage of mortgage loans made to Black borrowers. We have robust fair lending programs that perform testing and review policies, procedures and lending data, which help expand economic opportunity and access to homeownership. While it is Navy Federal’s policy not to comment on pending litigation, we look forward to responding to these claims in our forthcoming filings with the court,’ the statement read.
On its site, Navy Federal Credit Union purports itself to be an Equal Housing Lender.
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