Mortgage Lending Lawsuit with KleinBank

Minneapolis, MN – According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Department of Justice has sued a Minnesota bank for allegedly engaging in mortgage lending practices that discriminate against minorities.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, the DOJ says KleinBank engaged in “redlining.” The DOJ says that’s when banks deny or avoid providing credit services to consumers because of racial demographics or because of the neighborhood where they live.

KleinBank is closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday and a representative could not be reached for comment. The bank doesn’t have an attorney listed for this case to comment on its behalf.

In the lawsuit, the federal government alleges that from 2010 to at least 2015, KleinBank structured its home mortgage lending business to avoid serving neighborhoods where a majority of residents are racial and ethnic minorities.