Class Claims Lenders Prey on Latinas

RENO (CN) – A federal class action claims that major mortgage companies and banks prey on Hispanic women in approving bogus mortgage loans. Josefa Lopez claims The Mortgage Store refinanced her home in 2005 though it was not registered to work in Nevada and knew she had no incomes and would not be able to make payments. She says she never even signed the mortgage application, which was passed from bank to bank while her payments doubled, she was refused permission to refinance again, and lost the house to foreclosure.     Lopez, who primarily speaks Spanish, says none of the closing documents were translated into Spanish, and that she “suffered from language barriers” that made her “vulnerable to predatory lending practices.”     She claims that she and other Hispanic women were offered a “less-than-favorable loan than would have been offered to a white borrower or a male borrower.”     Lopez is represented by Robert Hager with Hager Hearne.     Here are the defendants: Executive Trustee Service, Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Merscorp, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., G.M.A.C. Mortgage, National City Mortgage, P.N.C. Financial Services, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Citimortgage Inc., H.S.B.C. Mortgage Corp., A.I.G. United Guaranty Corp., Wells Fargo Bank, Bank Of America, and G.E. Money Bank.