Miami Using Novel Legal Strategy To Target Banks

The City of Miami says it can prove that banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, acted illegally under the 1968 Fair Housing Act and led the city to the verge of bankruptcy. The banks have asked the Supreme Court to block Miami’s lawsuit, saying the Fair Housing Act was never intended to be used for municipal suits. In court documents, Miami claims it found that African American and Hispanic borrowers were more likely to receive unfavorable loans, and when they got in trouble they were less likely to be offered affordable refinancing packages. “We think the banks were doing it knowingly, and as a part of the pattern and practice of their business model,” Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez told the Washington Post. In its brief, Bank of America wrote, “Municipal suits like this one were unheard of until recently, when enterprising contingency-free counsel began pushing them.”