Park National Bank, headquartered in Newark, Ohio agreed to pay more than $9 million in February 2023 — the DOJ's sixth Combating Redlining Initiative settlement — to resolve allegations that from 2015 to 2021 the bank concentrated all its branches and mortgage lenders in majority-white Columbus metropolitan neighborhoods and failed to provide mortgage lending services to majority-Black and Hispanic communities, with $7.75 million in a loan subsidy fund.

Park National Bank — DOJ $9 Million Redlining Settlement, Columbus, Ohio (2023)

Outcome: Park National Bank, headquartered in Newark, Ohio, agreed to pay more than $9 million on February 28, 2023 — the Department of Justice's sixth settlement under its Combating Redlining Initiative — to resolve allegations that from 2015 to 2021 the bank failed to provide mortgage lending services to majority-Black and Hispanic communities in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area by concentrating all of its branches and mortgage loan officers in majority-white neighborhoods.

Park National Bank operated throughout the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area but structured its physical and human presence to serve exclusively majority-white communities. According to the DOJ's complaint, the bank concentrated all of its branches and all of its mortgage lenders in majority-white neighborhoods and did not take any significant steps to compensate for its complete absence from majority-Black and Hispanic communities in the Columbus market. This geographic concentration of lending capacity in white neighborhoods, combined with the absence of any meaningful outreach, marketing, or physical presence in minority communities, constituted an illegal pattern or practice of redlining under the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

The violations spanned from 2015 through 2021 — a six-year period during which the Columbus metropolitan area's majority-Black and Hispanic communities had no meaningful access to Park National Bank's mortgage products and services. The DOJ's February 2023 announcement was its sixth redlining resolution under the Combating Redlining Initiative launched in October 2021 and confirmed the initiative was reaching beyond the largest banks to mid-size and community banks serving major metropolitan markets.

The $9 million settlement allocated $7.75 million to a loan subsidy fund to help minority borrowers purchase homes in the affected Columbus communities. The bank also agreed to open a branch and a mortgage loan office in a majority-Black or Hispanic neighborhood and to conduct a community needs assessment for minority neighborhoods in its Columbus market.

Primary Source: DOJ Combating Redlining Initiative — Park National Bank Settlement (February 2023)