Bank discrimination against black, Hispanic, and Muslim employees and customers in financial services has some of the most wide-ranging consequences for the cultural and economic landscapes.
The financial services industry provides critical infrastructure for the national economy, helping people and businesses process transactions, raise money for new ventures, and facilitate services like insurance and employee benefit programs.
There’s an important high bar that banks and financial institutions need to meet for diversity and inclusion. Racial discrimination and various types of market failure have led to banking and credit deserts in underserved urban and rural communities. According to 2020 survey data from Bankrate, minorities, millennials, and Northeasterners reported paying higher bank fees.
Bias tied to race and perpetuated by institutions that benefit from it has long sustained a wide divide in financial opportunities and income levels between white Americans and other communities.
In the recent Edelman Trust Institute survey, more than 2,100 people from white, Black, Latinx, and Asian communities, told us that prejudice runs deep in the financial services sector, and that distrust of it runs high among Black and Brown communities.
In recent years, Muslim individuals, businesses, and nonprofits have reported facing potentially discriminatory practices at some of the nation’s largest banks.
According to a report released by a nonprofit that provides research about American Muslims, a quarter of the American Muslim population has faced hurdles while banking in the United States.
These challenges include:
- Not being allowed to open an account;
- Having an account suspended or closed; and
- Having payments subjected to extra scrutiny.
Civil Rights Leader and Trial Lawyer Ben Crump and the award-winning trial attorneys at Hilliard Law have experience in helping bank and financial institutions employees and customers who have experienced racial discrimination to get justice and compensation.
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