Oct. 6--A coalition of community groups supporting equal housing access charged Monday that Midwest BankCentre failed to provide any approved mortgage loans to African-Americans during the last five years, saying the Clayton-based bank's lending practices appear to be discriminatory.

The coalition, called the St. Louis Equal Housing and Community Reinvestment Alliance, gathered its data through the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The data, confirmed by the Post-Dispatch, showed that Midwest BankCentre had not approved a single mortgage loan to a black borrower from 2004 through 2008.

In 2008, five blacks applied for mortgages, and none received a loan. In contrast, 137 whites applied, and 69 received a loan, according to HMDA data.

Midwest BankCentre, however, said late Monday that HMDA records don't reflect all the bank's loans made to minorities.

"We do not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin," Ronald T. Barnes, chairman of Midwest BankCentre, said in a statement.

Steve Houston, a spokesman for Midwest BankCentre, said that since 2004, the total of all types of loans originated by the bank to minorities, including blacks, has continued to increase. However, he could not provide any details.

Federal law requires lenders to report the race of those applying for home-related loans; the data aren't required for other loans, such as credit card and auto.

To test the bank's receptiveness to minority applicants, the housing coalition -- composed of groups such as nonprofits Justine Petersen and ACORN St. Louis -- said it recently sent both a black and white "potential borrower" to ask about loans.

The group claimed the potential black borrower received just one customer service contact, while the potential white borrower received one customer service contact and six follow-up contacts from the mortgage division.

It also said the bank confined service branches to areas where less than 2.5 percent of the households were black.

As a result, the group filed a letter with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accusing the bank of failing to meet its obligation under the Community Reinvestment Act. The CRA is a federal law that encourages banks to make loans that help the entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

When Midwest BankCentre was last evaluated in 2007, the Fed gave the bank a "satisfactory" rating overall, with a "low satisfactory" in terms of lending. A bank that gets an "unsatisfactory" rating can come under pressure from federal regulators to improve, and the poor rating could jeopardize applications to expand or acquire other banks.

Midwest BankCentre holds 1 percent of the metro area's deposits, making it 15th in size among banks that operate here.

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