IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jfinte/v4y2025i1p8-d1586562.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Racial Disparities in Conforming Mortgage Lending: A Comparative Study of Fintech and Traditional Lenders Under Regulatory Oversight

Author

Listed:
  • Zilong Liu

    (Department of Business Administration, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA)

  • Hongyan Liang

    (Department of Business Administration, Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA)

Abstract

This study examines racial and ethnic disparities in mortgage-lending outcomes across different lender types—large banks, fintech lenders, non-bank lenders, small banks, and credit unions—using Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2018 to 2023. By analyzing approval rates, rate spreads, and origination charges, we evaluate how borrower outcomes vary by race and ethnicity, controlling for loan characteristics, borrower attributes, and regional factors. Our findings reveal that Black and Hispanic borrowers consistently face less favorable terms than White borrowers, with disparities differing by lender type. Large banks, operating under stringent regulatory oversight, demonstrate relatively equitable pricing but impose higher loan denial rates on minorities. Credit unions, despite offering the lowest rate spreads overall, penalize minority borrowers more severely in pricing than other lender types. Fintech lenders, while charging higher-rate spreads and fees, show smaller credit access disparities for minority borrowers. Non-bank and small banks display mixed results, with inconsistencies in their treatment of minorities across pricing and credit access. These results highlight that neither technological innovations nor alternative lending models alone suffice to eliminate systemic inequities. Achieving equitable mortgage lending requires enhanced regulatory oversight, greater transparency in algorithmic decision-making, and stricter enforcement of fair lending practices.

Suggested Citation

  • Zilong Liu & Hongyan Liang, 2025. "Racial Disparities in Conforming Mortgage Lending: A Comparative Study of Fintech and Traditional Lenders Under Regulatory Oversight," FinTech, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jfinte:v:4:y:2025:i:1:p:8-:d:1586562
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2674-1032/4/1/8/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2674-1032/4/1/8/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Fuster & Matthew Plosser & Philipp Schnabl & James Vickery, 2019. "The Role of Technology in Mortgage Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1854-1899.
    2. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Erik Hurst, 2002. "The Transition To Home Ownership And The Black-White Wealth Gap," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(2), pages 281-297, May.
    3. Munnell, Alicia H. & Geoffrey M. B. Tootell & Lynn E. Browne & James McEneaney, 1996. "Mortgage Lending in Boston: Interpreting HMDA Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 25-53, March.
    4. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "What Drives Racial and Ethnic Differences in High-Cost Mortgages? The Role of High-Risk Lenders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 175-205.
    5. Julapa Jagtiani & Catharine Lemieux, 2019. "The roles of alternative data and machine learning in fintech lending: Evidence from the LendingClub consumer platform," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 48(4), pages 1009-1029, December.
    6. Neil Bhutta & Aurel Hizmo, 2021. "Do Minorities Pay More for Mortgages? [Higher-priced home lending and the 2005 HMDA data]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(2), pages 763-789.
    7. Robert B. Avery & Kenneth P. Brevoort & Glenn Canner, 2012. "Does Credit Scoring Produce a Disparate Impact?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 40, pages 65-114, December.
    8. Jacob W. Faber, 2013. "Racial Dynamics of Subprime Mortgage Lending at the Peak," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 328-349, April.
    9. Bartlett, Robert & Morse, Adair & Stanton, Richard & Wallace, Nancy, 2022. "Consumer-lending discrimination in the FinTech Era," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 30-56.
    10. Stephen L. Ross & John Yinger, 2002. "The Color of Credit: Mortgage Discrimination, Research Methodology, and Fair-Lending Enforcement," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262182289, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. James Conklin & Kristopher Gerardi & Lauren Lambie-Hanson, 2022. "Can Everyone Tap Into the Housing Piggy Bank? Racial Disparities in Access to Home Equity," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2022-17, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    2. Hagendorff, Jens & Nguyen, Duc Duy & Sila, Vathunyoo, 2022. "Does marriage equality promote credit access? Evidence from same-sex marriage laws," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Hadi Elzayn & Simon Freyaldenhoven & Ryan Kobler & Minchul Shin, 2025. "Measuring Fairness in the U.S. Mortgage Market," Working Papers 25-04, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    4. Bartlett, Robert & Morse, Adair & Stanton, Richard & Wallace, Nancy, 2022. "Consumer-lending discrimination in the FinTech Era," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 30-56.
    5. Christophe Hurlin & Christophe Perignon & Sébastien Saurin, 2021. "The Fairness of Credit Scoring Models," Working Papers hal-03501452, HAL.
    6. Zhang, Jennifer, 2024. "Social proximity to capital and mortgage lending," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Hurtado, Agustin & Sakong, Jung, 2022. "The effect of minority bank ownership on minority credit," Working Papers 325, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    8. Andreas Fuster & Paul Goldsmith‐Pinkham & Tarun Ramadorai & Ansgar Walther, 2022. "Predictably Unequal? The Effects of Machine Learning on Credit Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(1), pages 5-47, February.
    9. Shaun A. Bond & Michael D. Eriksen, 2021. "The role of parents on the home ownership experience of their children: Evidence from the health and retirement study," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(2), pages 433-458, June.
    10. Greenwald, Daniel L. & Howell, Sabrina T. & Li, Cangyuan & Yimfor, Emmanuel, 2024. "Regulatory arbitrage or random errors? Implications of race prediction algorithms in fair lending analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    11. Manthos D. Delis & Panagiotis Papadopoulos, 2019. "Mortgage Lending Discrimination Across the U.S.: New Methodology and New Evidence," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 341-368, December.
    12. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "What Drives Racial and Ethnic Differences in High-Cost Mortgages? The Role of High-Risk Lenders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 175-205.
    13. Song Han, 2011. "Creditor Learning and Discrimination in Lending," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 1-27, October.
    14. Stephen L. Ross, 2005. "The Continuing Practice and Impact of Discrimination," Working papers 2005-19, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2006.
    15. Schuetz, Jenny & Larrimore, Jeff & Merry, Ellen A. & Robles, Barbara J. & Tranfaglia, Anna & Gonzalez, Arturo, 2018. "Are central cities poor and non-white?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 83-94.
    16. Neil Bhutta & Aurel Hizmo & Daniel R. Ringo, 2024. "How Much Does Racial Bias Affect Mortgage Lending? Evidence from Human and Algorithmic Credit Decisions," Working Papers 24-09, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    17. Begley, Taylor A. & Purnanandam, Amiyatosh, 2021. "Color and credit: Race, regulation, and the quality of financial services," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 48-65.
    18. David Gaddis Ross & Dong Hyun Shin, 2024. "Do financial market frictions hurt the performance of women‐led ventures? A meta‐analytic investigation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 507-534, March.
    19. Jacob Faber, 2021. "Contemporary echoes of segregationist policy: Spatial marking and the persistence of inequality," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(5), pages 1067-1086, April.
    20. D Dulani Jayasuriya & Mohamed Ayaz & Michael Williams, 2023. "The use of digital footprints in the US mortgage market," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 353-401, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jfinte:v:4:y:2025:i:1:p:8-:d:1586562. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.