UNITED STATES REACHES LENDING DISCRIMINATION
SETTLEMENT WITH GFI MORTGAGE BANKERS INC.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Thomas
E. Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division,
and John Trasviña, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), announced today that GFI Mortgage
Bankers Inc., a large independent home mortgage firm that concentrates on the New York, New
Jersey, and Florida markets, will pay $3.555 million to resolve a lending discrimination lawsuit
filed by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of
New York. The lawsuit alleges that GFI engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by
pricing residential mortgage loans for qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers
higher than for similarly qualified non-Hispanic white borrowers between 2005 and 2009. The
consent order, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan – where GFI is headquartered – was
approved today by U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “With the settlement we announce today,
the hundreds of victims of lending discrimination committed by GFI will be made whole, and the
company has admitted the conduct that led to this lawsuit, and agreed to reform its residential
lending practices. The swift resolution of this case demonstrates the commitment of this Office
and of the entire Department of Justice to aggressively enforcing the laws against discriminatory
lending, and to holding accountable those who engage in this illegal conduct.”

Assistant Attorney General for DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez said: “The
Justice Department will not hesitate to litigate against lenders to enforce federal fair lending laws
where the evidence warrants and to obtain compensation for borrowers who were victims of
unlawful lending practices. This department is determined to address discriminatory lending
practices and to ensure equal credit opportunity for all borrowers in the years to come. We also
greatly appreciate our strong partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern
District of New York, which worked jointly with the department to prosecute this case.”
HUD Assistant Secretary John Trasviña said: “No prospective home buyer should be
saddled with a higher cost mortgage because of their race or national origin. This type of practice
has no place in the mortgage market. HUD and the Justice Department have made a vigorous
commitment to ending unlawful lending discrimination.”

The settlement provides $3.5 million – full compensation – to approximately 600
African-American and Hispanic GFI borrowers identified by the United States as having paid
more for a loan based on their race or national origin than similarly situated non-Hispanic white
borrowers, and it requires GFI to pay the maximum $55,000 civil penalty allowed by the Fair
Housing Act. The settlement also requires GFI to develop and implement new policies that limit
the pricing discretion of its loan officers, to document its loan pricing decisions, and to monitor
loan prices for race and national origin disparities not justified by objective borrower credit
characteristics or loan features.

As part of the settlement, GFI admits that an analysis of the interest rates for notes, and
fees that it charged, on mortgage loans to qualified borrowers showed statistically significant
disparities between non-Hispanic white borrowers and both African-American and Hispanic
borrowers that could not be explained by objective borrower characteristics or loan product
features. The company also admitted that it provided financial incentives to its loan officers to
charge higher interest rates and fees to borrowers, and that it did not have fair lending training
and monitoring programs in place to prevent those interest rate and fee disparities from
occurring.

Mr. Bharara thanked the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development,
which referred the GFI matter to the Justice Department in June 2010 for a potential pattern or
practice of discrimination.

The case was handled jointly by the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and
the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jean-David
Barnea and David J. Kennedy handled the case with Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
attorneys Jon M. Seward, Sameena Shina Majeed, Burtis M. Dougherty, and Daniel Mosteller.

Today’s announcement is part of efforts underway by President Obama’s Financial Fraud
Enforcement Task Force (FFETF) which was created in November 2009 to wage an aggressive,
coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. With more than 20
federal agencies, 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices and state and local partners, it’s the broadest coalition
of law enforcement, investigatory and regulatory agencies ever assembled to combat fraud. Since
its formation, the task force has made great strides in facilitating increased investigation and
prosecution of financial crimes; enhancing coordination and cooperation among federal, state
and local authorities; addressing discrimination in the lending and financial markets and
conducting outreach to the public, victims, financial institutions and other organizations. Over
the past three fiscal years, the Justice Department has filed more than 10,000 financial fraud
cases against nearly 15,000 defendants including more than 2,700 mortgage fraud defendants.
For more information on the task force, visit www.stopfraud.gov.

A copy of the complaint and proposed consent order, as well as additional information
about fair lending enforcement by the Justice Department, can be obtained from the Justice
Department website at www.justice.gov/fairhousing.

The proposed settlement provides for an independent administrator to contact and
distribute payments of compensation at no cost to borrowers whom the Justice Department
identifies as victims of GFI’s discrimination. Borrowers who are eligible for compensation from
the settlement will be contacted by the administrator. The department will make a public
announcement and post contact information on its website once the administrator begins
contacting victims. Individuals who believe that they may have been victims of lending
discrimination by GFI and have questions about the settlement may email the department at
gfisettlement@usdoj.gov, call 1-800-896-7743, or write to the following address:

Chief, Civil Rights Unit
U.S. Attorney’s Office, S.D.N.Y.
86 Chambers Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10007