JPMorgan Chase & Co [corporate website] agreed Wednesday to pay $55 million to settle a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website]. The lawsuit accuses [Reuters report] JPMorgan of discriminating against minority borrowers by allowing mortgage brokers to charge them more for home loans. The lawsuit accused the bank of violating the US Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by charging thousands of minorities more money for home loans through wholesale loans. JPMorgan allegedly allowed their brokers to change the rates charged for such loans without documenting the reasons for the changing rates.

US banking companies [JURIST backgrounder] have been under intense scrutiny in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered [JURIST report] Bank of America to pay $727 million for its illegal credit card practices. The DOJ criticized [JURIST report] the US Sentencing Commission in March 2015 after a federal panel introduced a proposal which would reduce prison time for white-collar criminals. In July 2015 Citigroup, Inc. agreed [JURIST report] to pay USD $7 billion to settle a federal inquiry into mortgage-backed securities sold by the bank prior to the financial crisis. The US Supreme Court granted certiorari [JURIST report] in April 2015 to hear a mortgage lending case in which Countrywide failed to provide required information and the borrowers attempted to rescind the loan. In February 2015 the Supreme Court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] on a subprime mortgage fraud case. Earlier that month JPMorgan Chase paid [JURIST report] a USD $614 million settlement to the US government for its role in approving unqualified mortgages for government insurance.