Pittsburgh giant PNC Bank must pay $15,000 to a Newington Navy veteran and her husband who were denied a home mortgage because she was pregnant, authorities say. PNC also must review all its loans to veterans throughout the Northeast for other signs of bias.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said Wednesday PNC Bank’s Trumbull mortgage division breached federal housing rules against discriminating in financing home purchases.
HUD said its complaint alleged that because PNC required the unidentified veteran to return to work before approving the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)- guaranteed loan, the couple could not close on their Newington home until a month later than they had planned.
As a result, the seller allegedly required the couple to pay an additional $3,000 for the delay, HUD said.
Under its settlement with HUD, PNC will pay $15,000 to the couple and review applications for all its VA-guaranteed home loans filed in the last two years in Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York to identify qualified loan seekers whose applications were denied because they were pregnant or on maternity leave.
PNC will pay $7,500 to each victim who is identified, HUD said.
PNC also will revise its temporary leave/short-term disability income policy if HUD finds that the policy is deficient, and will provide fair lending training to its residential mortgage loan originators, underwriters, and processors, the agency said.
PNC Bank, a unit of Pittsburgh’s PNC financial Group Inc., is the nation’s fifth largest, with $271 billion in assets. A PNC Bank spokesman could not be immediately reached Wednesday for comment.
HUD says its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity and its partners in the Fair Housing Assistance Program investigate almost 10,000 housing discrimination complaints annually.
Persons who believe they have experienced or witnessed unlawful housing discrimination may contact HUD at (800) 669-9777 (voice), or (800) 927-9275 (TTY).
