"Trident Mortgage Company, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., engaged in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination by 'redlining' in the Philadelphia metropolitan area," the release said on Wednesday. "Trident has agreed to invest over $20 million to increase credit opportunities in neighborhoods of color in the Philadelphia metropolitan area."
From 2015 to 2019, the release added, Trident allegedly failed to provide mortgage lending services to neighborhoods of color in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The complaint also alleges that loan officers exchanged e-mails containing racial slurs and referring to communities of color as "ghettos," the release added.
Trident will inject $18.4 million of the investment in a loan subsidy fund for residents of neighborhoods of color in the area. Trident will also make sure that the lender hires at least four mortgage loan officers who will serve Black and brown neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia, Camden, and Wilmington, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department made the announcement in conjunction with the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Attorneys General of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.