Justice Department Secures $9 Million In Redlining Agreement

By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that they reached a $9 million agreement with an Ohio-based bank to resolve redlining allegations. Redlining is an illegal practice in which lenders avoid providing credit services to individuals living in certain communities because of their race, color, or national origin. It is alleged that from at least 2015 to 2021, Park National Bank, headquartered in Newark, Ohio, engaged in the pattern or practice of lending discrimination in the Columbus metropolitan area. The bank’s branches and mortgage lenders were concentrated in majority-white neighborhoods, and company leaders failed to take any meaningful measures to compensate for its lack of physical presence in majority-Black and Hispanic communities, according to…