Wells Fargo Loan Officers Target Black Neighborhoods with Subprime Products

Internal Wells Fargo documents and whistleblower testimony revealed loan officers calling Black clients 'mud people' and their loans 'ghetto loans.' Officers were trained to steer qualified Black borrowers away from prime mortgages toward higher-fee subprime products. A 2012 DOJ settlement required Wells Fargo to pay $175 million — the largest fair-lending settlement in U.S. history at the time — for discriminating against Black and Latino borrowers between 2004 and 2009.