OTHER NEWS - Sept. 18, 1992

Lender Charged in Race Bias Suit: In its first discrimination case ever against a mortgage lender, the government charged Decatur Federal Savings & Loan Assn., a major Atlanta thrift, with refusing to lend money to black home buyers because of their race. Decatur denied discriminating against any loan applicant but agreed to settle the charges to avoid costly litigation. It said it will pay $1 million to 48 blacks rejected for home mortgages since January, 1988, and improve its fair lending policies. The Justice Department suit charges that Decatur, one of Atlanta’s largest home lenders making $1 billion in mortgages last year, rejected black applicants over the last four years at almost three times the rate of white applicants.