An interagency task force released its statement on Discrimination, which says that lenders should check their actions for evidence of lending discrimination and then explains what lenders should do to fix the damage.

If a lender discovers discriminatory practices, it should make all reasonable efforts to determine the full extent of the discrimination and its cause. Were the practices grounded in defective policies? Was there poor implementation or control of those policies? Or is the problem isolated to a particular area of the lender's operations? The lender should then take all appropriate corrective actions to address the discrimination including, but not limited to, the following:

• Identify customers whose applications have been inappropriately processed, and offer to extend credit if they were improperly denied, compensating them for both out-of-pocket and compensatory damages; and notifying them of their legal rights.

• Correct any institutional policies or procedures that contributed to the discrimination.

• Identify, and then train and/or discipline, the employees involved.

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• Consider the need for community outreach programs and/or changes in marketing strategy or loan products to better serve minority segments of the lender's market.

• Improve audit and oversight systems in order to ensure the discrimination is not repeated.