What happened
On June 29, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department announced a joint fair-lending action against BancorpSouth Bank. The complaint alleged the Tupelo-based bank redlined majority-minority neighborhoods in the Memphis MSA, denied certain African-American mortgage applicants more often than similarly situated white applicants, charged African-American borrowers more on certain loans, and used a discriminatory loan-denial practice.
Under the consent order—entered July 25, 2016, per DOJ—BancorpSouth was to pay about $4 million in loan subsidies for minority Memphis neighborhoods, $2.78 million in restitution to African-American consumers harmed by underwriting and pricing discrimination, at least $800,000 for outreach and credit repair, and a $3 million civil penalty, a package the agencies described as about $10.6 million, plus injunctive relief including a new branch or loan office in a high-minority neighborhood. Those are consent-order terms resolving agency allegations, not a contested trial verdict.
The Cookout read
Concern. Federal agencies putting Memphis redlining and Black underwriting/pricing discrimination in the same complaint is why this file exists. Label the $10.6 million as settlement remedies under a consent order.