Predatory lending refers to unethical practices by a lending organization during loan origination that are unfair, deceptive or fraudulent toward the borrower. There is no single internationally agreed legal definition, but a 2006 audit report from the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's office of inspector general broadly described it as imposing unfair and abusive loan terms on borrowers, and various government agencies use the term as an umbrella for a range of specific illegal practices in the loan industry, distinct from predatory servicing of an already existing loan. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Elements of OffenseUsing balloon payments to conceal the true burden of the financing and to force borrowers into costly refinancing transactions or foreclosures 1 Notable ExampleAmeriquest agreed to pay a $325 million predatory lending settlement with state authorities 1 Jurisdiction VariationUnited States: in 1994 section 32 of the Truth in Lending Act, the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994, was created 1 Classification
Offense Grade Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Predatory lending (Wikipedia)
OCC Advisory Letter AL 2003-2 list of practices
Using balloon payments to conceal the true burden of the financing and to force borrowers into costly refinancing transactions or foreclosures
Other targeted groups
Ameriquest later agreed to pay a $325 million (~$500 million in 2024) predatory lending settlement
Legislation, United States
section 32 of the Truth in Lending Act, entitled the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994, was created
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