Statewide advocacy groups are sounding the alarm over a pending merger between two banks in New Jersey one has been accused of illegal and discriminatory loan practices that have historically her low-income residents of color now activists are working to stop the merger unless authorities do more to combat what's known as redlining senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports we're not talking about 1935. we're not talking about 1955. we're talking about 21st century redlining right here right now redlining is a discriminatory practice of denying someone a loan or other Financial Service because they live in a neighborhood considered a high Financial Risk it's most often people of color living in poor communities it's a practice that Lakeland Bank in New Jersey was recently charged with in September of 2022 the United States Department of Justice entered into a historic 13 million dollar consent order with Lakeland Bank for engaging in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination by redlining in the Newark Metropolitan Area the Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits housing discrimination based on race color and other factors but New Jersey citizen actions analysis of lakeland's mortgage data for 2018 to 2021 in Essex Summers set and Union counties found loans to Black residents only consisted of 1.7 percent of its total loans Lakeland Bank was charged with violating the fair housing act and denying low and moderate income Black and Hispanic consumers access to credit with reasonable interest rates and clear terms and conditions under the doj's consent order Lakeland Bank has to open two new locations one in Newark but Lakeland might soon be purchased by Provident Bank headquartered in Jersey City and that has advocacy groups like NJ citizen action joining forces with Newark mayor Roz Baraka and others asking the Federal Reserve to hold the merged Bank to the same requirements as the consent order and then some Regulators local leaders and housing and racial Justice Advocates must demand more from the banks operating in New Jersey in order to end redlining once and for all beyond the consent agreement with the Department of Justice we need agreements we need CRA agreements with Community stakeholders for the Lake of the Provident merger Provident Bank in a statement to NJ Spotlight news quote agreed to assume all of Lakeland bank's obligations under the doj consent order and will continue to adhere to all elements of the doj consent order a CRA agreement is a community reinvestment act agreement New Jersey citizen action recently filed charges with the Federal Reserve asking that any merger approval between Provident and Lakeland must include CRA agreements and specifically targeted to Newark a region where predatory lending practices redlining and price gouging have contributed to generational poverty which tells you why these communities are suffering and look the way they look very deliberately and and it means that we have to take very deliberate action in reversing that that's why we stand with New Jersey citizen action uh and asking the Federal Reserve before they uh you know sanctionist agreement sanctionist uh merger that they should enforce uh what the consent order uh said by the Department of Justice NJ citizen action was surprised to see a detailed letter come from the Federal Reserve last month in response to their challenge filed in December for the first time in my 38 years here we received a letter a five-page letter from the New York fed and more than half of that letter spoke directly to the demands that we have put out how many mortgages how many subsidies who they've given it to what are the incomes and where do those people live New Jersey citizen action is meeting again with Provident Bank later this month to discuss the potential terms of a CRA while the Federal Reserve determines whether to approve the merger between Provident and Lakeland Bank and whether to include the demands made by New Jersey citizen action in Nutley I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight news