The Department of Housing and Urban Development is continuing its crusade against maternity discrimination with its latest target being a mortgage insurer for credit unions.
HUD announced this week that it has reached two conciliation agreements with Madison, Wis.-based CMG Mortgage Insurance Co.
CMG provides private mortgage insurance on residential loans that are originated and closed by the nation’s credit unions.
The mortgage insurer will pay $30,000 to settle a pair of Fair Housing Act complaints.
One of the complaints was filed over a married couple that was denied coverage because the wife was on maternity leave. The other was filed as a result of CMG’s written policy of refusing to consider the regular pay of women on maternity leave as income.
The couple will receive $5,000 of the settlement, while $25,000 will go to a qualified organization to educate the public about their fair lending rights.
CMG also agreed to develop nondiscriminatory guidelines for calculating maternity, paternity and pregnancy leave income. In addition, it will train its own employees and credit union employees who have underwriting responsibilities how to implement the new guidelines.
The settlement is far less than a similar agreement HUD reached with Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. in November 2012 that cost MGIC more than $1 million.
Other companies to settle claims of maternity discrimination with HUD since 2011 include Bank of America Corp., Cornerstone Mortgage Co., Home Loan Center Inc., Land Home Financial Services, Magna Bank, PNC Mortgage, Primary Residential Mortgage Inc. and SunTrust Mortgage Inc.
