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Evans Bank discriminating against African-Americans: Schneiderman

Evans Bank, an upstate New York mortgage lender, purposely discriminated against minority borrowers by refusing to do business in largely non-white areas in the Buffalo area, according to a complaint filed Tuesday by the state attorney general.

In a process called “redlining,” Evans Bank deliberately excluded African-American neighborhoods from its lending area, and held people in those areas to a higher standard than in areas where the population was predominantly white, according to the lawsuit filed by Eric Schneiderman.

This redlining process, which Schneiderman charges started in 2009, continues to this day, he said.

“They’re deliberately engaging in traditional redlining with a substantial impact on the community,” the state’s top lawman said at a press conference in Buffalo.