Senators call on federal regulators to review Navy Federal over mortgage approval disparities, citing CNN investigation

Senators call on federal regulators to review Navy Federal mortgage disparities, citing CNN investigation

Ten Democratic U.S. Senators urged federal regulators to review the lending practices of the nation’s largest credit union on Thursday, citing a CNN investigation into racial disparities in the lender’s mortgage approvals. In a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the senators asked the regulators to investigate Navy Federal Credit Union’s mortgage lending for compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. The credit union, which has more than 13 million members, lends to military servicemembers, defense personnel, veterans, and their families. “Navy Federal’s members have made countless sacrifices in their service to our country,” the senators wrote in the letter. “We must do all we can to ensure illegal barriers are not placed on their path to homeownership.” The letter’s authors include the chairs of the Senate Banking and Finance committees, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon. A CNN investigation last month found that Navy Federal approved more than 75% of the White borrowers who applied for a new conventional home purchase mortgage in 2022 while approving less than 50% of Black borrowers who applied for the same type of loan, according to the most recent federal data available. The nearly 29-percentage-point gap in Navy Federal’s approval rates was the widest of any of the 50 lenders that originated the most mortgage loans in 2022. The disparity remained even after accounting for variables such as applicants’ income, debt-to-income ratio, property value, and down payment percentage, CNN’s review found.