Wells Fargo Pushed Racist Subprime Loans and Sponsors Juneteenth

Wells Fargo, an official sponsor of Juneteenth in most cities, systematically sold racist subprime mortgages to black workers. “Subprime loans” became well known in 2007. Tens of thousands of workers were duped by banks to buy a house at low interest rates while never being told that the rates would skyrocket.

A New York Times study found that black households that made more than $68,000 a year were five times as likely to receive a subprime loan as whites with similar or lower incomes. For Wells Fargo borrowers, this disparity was even greater with whites in that income group holding two percent of the subprime loans compared to 16.1 percent for blacks. Mortgage lenders at Wells Fargo
often referred to these subprime loans as “ghetto loans,” referring to the black working class they targeted. Wells Fargo specifically targeted black churches, hoping church leaders could help convince their congregation to take out thse loans. J