Loan Officer

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I am finishing a report on preapplication lending audits our office conducted a few years ago. One of the things that came up for us under "Level of Service" was that testers (both minority and caucasian) sometimes meet with poorly trained loan officers who coulnd't provide basic services. Because of their lack of training, the testers were recommended inappropriate products which impacted whether the testers qualified for a loan. We say that poorly trained loan officers lack of knowledge can be discouraging to some borrowers from applying for a loan. Could we possibly also say, that the effect of being poorly trained when working a minority customer could be discriminatory, although that may not be the intent. Or could we look at the tests and question why a minority was given a poorly trained loan officer, such as, was it to discourage??

Has anyone else done lending testing where this problem came up? Thanks for any comments.

Eli O'Herlihey King County Office of Civil Rights Enforcement

-- Eli O'Herlihey (Eli.Oherlihey@metrokc.gov), June 10, 1999

Answers

I have not done lending testing, but feel that I was involved unknowingly. This particular banking institution rushed in to create a committee on fair lending "best practices". You could never tell. I've owned two homes previously and working on my third. I have never received service in the form that our lender is offering. Every opporutnity he gets he degrades us!

-- linda johnson (ljohnson@arinc.com), December 18, 2001.

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