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FORD DEALERS IN PHILLY SETTLE RACIAL BIAS COMPLIANTS: Two locations (that we know of) were charging blacks higher interest rates on loans.
*Two Ford dealerships in the Philadelphia area have settled a racial bias case with the Department of Justice, which Tuesday cited them for charging black customers higher loan interest rates than whites of similar financial means from 1999 to 2002.
"Racial discrimination in lending is wrong and will not be tolerated," Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement released Tuesday.
According to Philadelphia newspaper Evening Bulletin, Springfield Ford in Delaware County and Pacifico Ford on Essington Avenue in Philadelphia were hit with the allegations. Both dealerships had been under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
"The differences in the interest rate markups between the automobile loans made to African-American consumers purchasing automobiles from Pacifico Ford and those made to non-African-American consumers cannot be explained fully by factors unrelated to race, such as differences in the consumers' creditworthiness or by differences in the down payment amounts provided by consumers," the federal government stated in a complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The government filed a similarly worded complaint against Springfield Ford.
Under the terms of the consent orders, neither dealership may use race as a factor in deciding who gets charged higher markups. They have both agreed to a new process for setting interest rates to ensure fairer lending and to train employees to set rates impartially, the paper reported.
