Alleged "Ghetto Loans" Peddler's SEC Filing Acknowledges Government Probe Into Possible Reverse Redlining Home Lending Practices

In Memphis, Tennessee, The Memphis Daily News reports:

• The San Francisco bank Memphis and Shelby County governments sued in December over its lending practices has acknowledged it’s the subject of a probe by “certain government entities” over the same thing.(1)

• In a quarterly report filed Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Wells Fargo & Co. gave a two-sentence disclosure about the investigations near the end of the report. “Certain government entities are conducting investigations into the mortgage lending practices of various Wells Fargo-affiliated entities, including whether borrowers were steered to more costly mortgage products,” the bank noted. “Wells Fargo intends to cooperate fully with these investigations.”

• A Wells Fargo spokesman said the company would not comment beyond those details. Left unsaid is what entities – state, federal or both – are looking into Wells’ mortgage lending.

For more, see Wells Fargo Acknowledges Gov't Investigation.

Go here for earlier posts on the "ghetto loans" allegations made against Wells Fargo.

(1) According to the story, the City of Memphis and Shelby County filed a federal lawsuit against the bank over the way Wells’ mortgage lending practices allegedly worsened the local foreclosure problem. The lender was accused of zeroing in on black homeowners in the city and county and prodding them into expensive, predatory mortgages. Last month, both governments amended their case to add testimony from four ex-employees of local Wells offices, all of whom claim the bank targeted black borrowers for less-than-desirable home loans, the story states.