Failed bank that lent N.J. homebuyers money avoided mortgages for minorities, officials say

Before being liquidated earlier this year, Republic Bank regularly avoided lending to potential home buyers planning to purchase property in communities of color in New Jersey, state investigators said in a report released Tuesday.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office found the bank had a history of redlining, an illegal practice where lenders intentionally decline to approve a home loan to people of color. The redlining targeted mostly Black, Hispanic and Asian communities in the Garden State.
The bank’s assets were seized in April by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Based in Philadelphia, the bank had 15 branches in New Jersey. The company was acquired by Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Fulton Bank, which assumed substantially all of the failed bank’s deposits and bought essentially all of its assets.