A national coalition of community groups is again criticizing KeyBank over its track record of home purchase loans with Black and low-income borrowers.
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition claims Key’s results worsened since the organization released a similar report last December.
The NCRC had worked with Key to develop a $16.5 billion community benefits plan created in conjunction with Key’s 2016 acquisition of First Niagara Bank. But the Washington, D.C.-based NCRC contended the bank failed to fulfill its promises, and last year declared it was cutting ties with Key.
“KeyBank’s steady withdrawal from Black and non-wealthy borrowers seeking to buy a home runs counter to the spirit of the agreement it made with community leaders” while seeking approval of the First Niagara deal, said Jason Richardson, the NCRC’s senior director of research, in an article published on the coalition’s website.
Cleveland-based Key, which counts Buffalo as its No. 2 market, said it is “committed to responsibly meeting the banking needs of all communities and strongly disagrees with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s characterization of our lending activities. As our mortgage business has matured, we have identified opportunities to do more lending to people of color.”
The NCRC’s latest report, citing federal data, said Black borrowers represented 2.6% of Key’s home purchase mortgage loans in 2022, down from 3% in 2021. And Key made 19.2% of its home purchase loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers last year, down from 19.7% in 2021, the coalition said.
The NCRC said the decline is more significant when compared to 2018 data, when Black borrowers represented 6.5% of Key’s home purchase loans, and over 38% of the bank’s home purchase loans were with low- to moderate-income borrowers.
In the Buffalo area, the NCRC said Key originated 538 home purchase loans in 2022, with 13 of them – or 2.4% – with a Black applicant,…
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