Wells Fargo Expands Efforts to Advance Racial Equity in Homeownership
April 13 2022 - 5:22PM
Business Wire
Company commits $210 million to help minority families
Systemic inequities in the United States have prevented too many
minority families from achieving their homeownership and wealth
building goals for too long. As the largest bank home mortgage
originator, and largest bank originator of home loans to minorities
over the last decade, Wells Fargo believes it has a responsibility
to develop solutions that help close the gap. As a next step in
meeting that responsibility, Wells Fargo today announced a new
initiative to help advance racial equity in homeownership across
the country. The company will develop a Special Purpose Credit
Program (SPCP) to help minority homeowners, whose mortgages are
currently serviced by Wells Fargo, refinance those mortgages.
Initially, through the program, Wells Fargo will identify eligible
Black homeowners who could benefit from a refinance product. Wells
Fargo will commit $150 million to lower mortgage rates and reduce
the refinancing costs to help these homeowners further benefit from
refinancing. This program goes beyond the usual lending programs
and puts the company’s own money to work refinancing minority
families’ homes. The company will assess its progress and will
publicly disclose it annually.
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View of city buildings from above.
(Photo: Wells Fargo)
Wells Fargo will also:
- Expand its partnerships with the National Urban League and
UnidosUS to broaden community outreach efforts for this and other
programs, provide homebuying readiness and counseling, and work to
eliminate systemic obstacles that prevent many Black and Hispanic
customers from achieving their homeownership goals.
- Commit, through the Wells Fargo Foundation, $60 million in
“Wealth Opportunities Restored through Homeownership” (WORTH)
grants projected to support 40,000 homeowners of color in eight
markets that have significant homeownership gaps between white and
minority families. WORTH grants will run through 2025 and will fund
public-private partnerships that develop and implement plans to
address the root causes of those homeownership gaps.
“Wells Fargo has long been a leader in lending to minority
families. These efforts are an important next step and will help
close the homeownership gap between white and minority families
created by decades of systemic inequities,” said Kristy Fercho, CEO
of Wells Fargo Home Lending. “We are taking meaningful action by
reimagining the homeownership journey to support minority families
in realizing the dream of homeownership.”
In 2020, Wells Fargo was the largest bank lender for home
mortgages to Black families. This is consistent with the company’s
performance over the last decade (2011 – 2020) in which it helped
as many Black families purchase homes as the next three largest
bank lenders combined.
Additionally:
- Wells Fargo helped more Black homeowners refinance their
mortgages in 2020 than any other bank.
- The 83% increase in the company’s refinance loans to Black
homeowners in 2020 compared to 2019 also was by far the biggest
gain among the largest banks.
- In 2021, Wells Fargo increased that total by 106% compared to
2020.
The company is a long-time leader in the housing finance
industry:
- Between 2017 and 2021, Wells Fargo has helped more than 425,000
Black and Hispanic families achieve their homeownership goals with
$110 billion in financing.
- Since 2019, Wells Fargo has allocated nearly $400 million to
help address the housing affordability crisis in the country
including homelessness, available and affordable rentals,
transitional housing and homeownership.
- Since 2021, Wells Fargo Home Lending CEO, Kristy Fercho, has
served as chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and has
led the Affordable Homeownership Workstream within the Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) Project REACh, a project to
promote financial inclusion through greater access to credit and
capital.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial
services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets,
proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of
small businesses in the U.S., and is the leading middle market
banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of
banking, investment, and mortgage products and services, as well as
consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable
operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial
Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth &
Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 37 on Fortune’s 2021
rankings of America’s largest corporations. In the communities we
serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a
sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing
affordability, small business growth, financial health, and a
low-carbon economy. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells
Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.
Additional information may be found at www.wellsfargo.com |
Twitter: @WellsFargo.
Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements about our
future financial performance and business. Because forward-looking
statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions
regarding the future, they are subject to inherent risks and
uncertainties. Do not unduly rely on forward-looking statements as
actual results could differ materially from expectations.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and we
do not undertake to update them to reflect changes or events that
occur after that date. For information about factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations,
refer to our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including the discussion under “Risk Factors” in our
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on
its website at www.sec.gov.
News Release Category: WF-PS
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220413006021/en/
Media Paul Turner, 415-603-7023
Paul.A.Turner@wellsfargo.com
Investor Relations John Campbell, 415-396-0523
john.m.campbell@wellsfargo.com
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