CNN found the nearly 29-percentage-point gap in Navy Federal's approval rates was the widest of any of 2022's Top 50 mortgage lenders.

A deeper statistical analysis performed by CNN found that Black applicants to Navy Federal were more than twice as likely to be denied as white applicants even when more than a dozen different variables – including income, debt-to-income ratio, property value, down payment percentage and neighborhood characteristics – were the same.

Navy Federal spokesperson Bill Pearson defended the credit union's lending practices in a statement to CNN.

"Navy Federal Credit Union is committed to equal and equitable lending practices and strict adherence to all fair lending laws," Pearson said. "Employee training, fair lending statistical testing, third-party evaluations, and compliance reviews are embedded in our lending practices to ensure fairness across the board."

Pearson said that CNN's analysis "does not accurately reflect our practices" because it did not account for "major criteria required by any financial institution to approve a mortgage loan." Those factors included "credit score, available cash deposits and relationship history with lender," he said.

But that information is not available in the public mortgage data and Navy Federal declined to provide it to CNN. In addition, most of the Navy Federal applications that were denied are listed as being rejected for reasons other than "credit history."

On Monday evening, credit union trade organizations NAFCU, CUNA and the African American Credit Union Coalition called out the CNN report as "misleading" and issued the following statement:

"Credit unions recognize that owning a home is at the heart of many families' financial dreams. As an industry, we have intentionally worked to address the challenges and inequities that working Americans, including minority and underserved communities, have in achieving this goal," CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle, NAFCU President/CEO Dan Berger and AACUC President and CEO Renée Sattiewhite stated. "Fair lending practices are foundational to the credit union mission; however, we acknowledge there is more work to be done to reduce disparities within our industry. It's unfortunate that a recent CNN analysis misconstrued credit union mortgage lending data to paint an inaccurate picture and draw false conclusions about Navy Federal Credit Union, and the entire credit union industry. The CNN numbers failed to calculate a large number of factors, leading to a flawed headline and disingenuous narrative that misrepresents credit union mortgage lending."

The three organizations also highlighted several statistics in response to the CNN report. Citing CUNA and the FFIEC, the groups said credit unions outperform on key mortgage portfolio share indicators, with Black borrowers making up 6.5% of credit unions' mortgage originations compared to 5.5% of banks', and low-income borrowers making up 8.3% of credit unions' originations compared to 6.1% of banks'. Also citing CUNA and the FFIEC, they said, "A broader analysis of mortgage lending data shows that borrowers saved as much as $70,000 over the life of a 30-year fixed rate mortgage in 2022 when financing with a member-owned credit union rather than Wall Street banks and mortgage companies. The savings are largest for those with significant credit score challenges."

In a press release posted by Navy Federal Monday, the credit union asserted that it is "a national leader in lending to the Black community, ranking third among the leading 50 lenders in the percentage of mortgage loans made to Black borrowers and first among large lenders. This represents more than $3.5 billion in mortgages to Black borrowers in 2022. This is representative of our longstanding commitment to expanding credit and economic opportunity to Black borrowers."