Fidelity Federal to Settle Lawsuit

Fidelity Federal Bank, a Glendale savings and loan, will pay $1.6 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit alleging it violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by discriminating against sub-prime credit card customers who were Latino or on welfare, the government said.

Third parties marketed the credit cards during the 1990s to high-risk borrowers in New York, Mississippi and Alabama, Fidelity President Greg Mitchell said. He said FBOP Corp., an Oak Park, Ill., banking company that in December purchased Fidelity’s parent, Bank Plus Corp., for $141 million, settled the 5-year-old case without admitting wrongdoing.

E. Scott Reckard