Canada: Buyout Challenged Over Racial Bias
The Royal Bank of Canada?s proposed $1.6 billion acquisition of Alabama National BanCorp was challenged by a group that claimed the Canadian bank engages in discriminatory lending. A financial advocacy group for poor consumers, Fair Finance Watch, said it asked the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., in a letter for hearings and all documents relating to the proposed buyout. The Royal Bank agreed on Sept. 6 to buy Alabama National for cash and stock. Fair Finance Watch claimed that in 2006 Royal Bank?s RBC Centura unit denied mortgage refinance applications in Charlotte, N.C., to blacks 4.4 times more frequently than whites. The group said in the Atlanta area, RBC Centura denied home improvement mortgage applications of blacks 4.2 times more frequently than whites. A bank spokeswoman, Judi Levita, said ?the lending practices of RBC Centura satisfactorily comply with all applicable requirements.?.
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