HSBC must face Chicago predatory lending lawsuit - judge

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) must face a lawsuit accusing the British bank of violating the U.S. Fair Housing Act by engaging in predatory mortgage lending in the Chicago area, a federal judge in that city ruled on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge John Lee rejected HSBC's motion to dismiss the March 2014 lawsuit by Cook County, Illinois, which includes Chicago.

Cook County alleged that several HSBC affiliates used sophisticated algorithms and software to steer thousands of black and Hispanic borrowers into subprime loans they often could not afford, even if they qualified for lower-cost loans.

It said the process, sometimes known as "reverse redlining," caused a "downward spiral" of delinquencies and foreclosures, eroded property taxes and necessitated greater spending to combat urban blight.

"The county has alleged a widespread scheme of discriminatory lending which involved all the various defendants," Lee wrote. "This is sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss."

HSBC spokesman Rob Sherman declined to comment.

U.S. cities including Baltimore, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Memphis and Miami have, with mixed success, accused a variety of banks in lawsuits of biased mortgage lending that harmed residents and prolonged the nation's housing crisis.

Cook County has also sued Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), raising claims similar to those in the HSBC case.

Those lawsuits are being handled by other federal judges in Chicago. One dismissed the Wells Fargo case in July, but Cook County filed an amended complaint the next month.

The case is County of Cook v HSBC North America Holdings Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 14-02031.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, editing by G Crosse)