First-Ever Minority Lending Awards Announced

The Lending Industry Diversity Conference, Inc. today announced the Best in Industry Awards winners for 2005 based on the recently released 2004 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data.

The Lending Industry Diversity Conference, Inc. has created the Best in Industry Awards to acknowledge those companies and individuals who have demonstrated superior performance in minority lending, higher minority origination rates and minority market penetration and, by so doing, have shown themselves to be the best in the industry. “We have observed a positive relationship between lenders who run a ‘tight ship’ in terms of underwriting and quality control and those who excel in terms of fair lending. These lenders look at ‘fair lending’ as a business opportunity and not a regulatory burden,” says Mike Taliefero, Managing Director of ComplianceTech, founders of the non-profit DC-based Lending Industry Diversity Conference, Inc. (LIDCI) and the lead organizers of the First Annual Mortgage Lending Industry Diversity Conference, which is being held October 6-7, 2005 in Arlington, Virginia. For more information about the conference go to http://www.mortgageindustrydiversity.com/.

The following companies were selected as Best in the Industry in 2005 for their respective performance categories by the Lending Industry Diversity Conference, Inc. based on the recently released 2004 HMDA data:

• Bank of America has earned the Best in Minority Market Penetration Award. This award recognizes the lender that has the greatest proportion of minority HMDA-reported applications compared to the national minority population proportion according to the 2000 census. To be eligible for this award the lender must have reported at least 50,000 HMDA applications, be a prime lender as determined by the most recently available list from HUD, and report no more than 10% of total applications as race unknown.

• Chase Manhattan Mortgage has earned the Best in Minority Origination Rate Award (Prime Lender). This award goes to the lender with the highest rate of funded minority originations as a percentage of total minority applications. A higher minority origination rate suggests lower minority denial and fallout rates. To be eligible for this award the lender must be among the Top 50 Prime lenders in total minority originations for 2004.

• Green Point Mortgage Funding has earned the Best in Minority Origination Rate Award (Non-Prime Lender). This award goes to the lender with the highest rate of funded minority originations as a percentage of total minority applications. A higher minority origination rate suggests lower minority denial and fallout rates. To be eligible for this award the lender must be among the Top 50 Non- Prime lenders in total minority originations for 2004.

• Franklin American Mortgage has earned the Best in Minority Lending Award (Small- to Medium-Sized Company). This award goes to the small- to medium-sized lender (less than or equal to 50,000 HMDA applications in 2004) operating primarily in the continental USA that made the most loans to minorities.

• Countrywide Home Loans has earned the Best in Minority Lending Award (Large Company). This award goes to the large mortgage lender (greater than 50,000 HMDA applications in 2004) that made the most loans to minorities.

The achievements of these lenders will be recognized at the first annual “Best in Industry” Awards Dinner to be held in the Washington, DC area in conjunction with the First Annual Mortgage Lending Industry Diversity Conference. “All of the lenders who are among the finalists are among the best in the industry but those who are being acknowledged are the best of the best in the performance year of 2004,” says Maurice Jourdain-Earl, founder of ComplianceTech. ComplianceTech provides lending-related consulting services with specialties in database analysis to identify marketing opportunities and legal/regulatory compliance weaknesses for the lending industry, especially related to fair lending.