American Banker, February 22, 2022, Wells Fargo sued for discrimination against Black borrowers
Christopher Williams filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Wells Fargo, which is headquartered in San Francisco. The complaint seeks unspecified damages for four counts of race discrimination and violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
Williams, an African American, alleges Wells Fargo denied him a prime interest rate despite being well-qualified, and referred to a 2019 letter from the bank claiming it used a “unique scoring model” beyond credit scores to evaluate applications.
