Allegations that were made in a government lawsuit alleging a Minnesota bank engaged in redlining are being vigorously disputed by the 110-year-old organization.
On
Friday, the Justice Department announced that it filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota against Chaska, Minnesota-based KleinBank.
The company is accused of treating white customers better than it treats prospects in Minneapolis-St. Paul neighborhoods where a majority of people are minorities.
According to the Justice Department, KleinBank violated the
Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act when it allegedly discriminated based on race and color in its mortgage lending practices.
But KleinBank
“vigorously disputes the U.S. Department of Justice complaint,” a statement from the bank Monday said.
KleinBank President and Chief Executive Officer Doug Hile was direct in his assessment of the litigation.
“The government’s claim of ‘redlining’ has absolutely no basis in fact,” Hile said in the statement. “To the contrary, KleinBank has an established history of responding to all credit requests with a commitment to fairness and equal opportunity.
“This history is undisputed.”
KleinBank explained that it was the first inquiry from the Department of Justice since it opened for business more than a century ago. It has reportedly been cooperating with the Justice Department for more than a year — providing
“significant amounts of information.”
Hile said the Twin Cities isn’t his bank’s market.
“Minneapolis and St. Paul are not part of KleinBank’s market, and we have virtually no business there,” He said. “These are highly competitive markets and they are comprehensively served by well-established financial institutions with numerous branches and many years of history.”
The government is making “a baseless and unprecedented reach”
by charging that KleinBank has a proactive duty to expand beyond its century-old roots in Carver County and western Minnesota to build branches in the Twin Cities.
