Cook County Accuses HSBC Units Of Predatory Lending
From Crain's Chicago Business
Cook County has sued subsidiaries of British lending giant HSBC PLC, alleging that they helped cause the residential foreclosure crisis with a pattern of predatory lending.
The HSBC units violated the federal Fair Housing Act by providing unaffordable loans to homeowners in minority communities in the county, resulting in a wave of foreclosures, according to a lawsuit the county filed March 21 in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
HSBC's lending activities “are a primary cause of the disparately high number of mortgage loan delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures and/or home vacancies in (Cook County's) communities and neighborhoods with higher percentages of minority borrower homeowners,” the complaint says.
The problems “have bled into (the county's) surrounding communities and neighborhoods and exacerbated the spiraling level of mortgage loan defaults, foreclosures and home vacancies as home prices fall from increased foreclosures and the deteriorating economy.”
Because of the large number of home vacancies that ensued during the foreclosure crisis, the county alleges that it and its citizens suffered from a drop in property values and tax collections, along with rising government costs to monitor the properties.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From Crain's Chicago Business
Cook County has sued subsidiaries of British lending giant HSBC PLC, alleging that they helped cause the residential foreclosure crisis with a pattern of predatory lending.
The HSBC units violated the federal Fair Housing Act by providing unaffordable loans to homeowners in minority communities in the county, resulting in a wave of foreclosures, according to a lawsuit the county filed March 21 in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
HSBC's lending activities “are a primary cause of the disparately high number of mortgage loan delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures and/or home vacancies in (Cook County's) communities and neighborhoods with higher percentages of minority borrower homeowners,” the complaint says.
The problems “have bled into (the county's) surrounding communities and neighborhoods and exacerbated the spiraling level of mortgage loan defaults, foreclosures and home vacancies as home prices fall from increased foreclosures and the deteriorating economy.”
Because of the large number of home vacancies that ensued during the foreclosure crisis, the county alleges that it and its citizens suffered from a drop in property values and tax collections, along with rising government costs to monitor the properties.
Read more in our daily News Update...