First National Bank will have to pay $13.5 million for discrimination against Hispanics and blacks in North Carolina. The Justice Department said the bank closed branches in neighborhoods where blacks or Hispanics were in the majority.
The bank will create an $11.7 million loan subsidy fund for communities of color in the Charlotte and Winston-Salem areas. The action was carried out as part of an initiative to combat discrimination established by the Department of Justice in 2021 to be the department's "most aggressive" effort to address discrimination.