the racial gap in denial rates for homepurchase loans widened last year as the federal reserve began tightening credit conditions via interestrate increases according to new data from us regulators black americans experienced denial rates of 164 in 2022 up from 157 the year before the federal financial institutions examination council said thursday rates for nonhispanicidentifying white applicants ticked up to 58 from 56 rising disparities in denial rates help underscore the impact of tighter credit on progress toward a more inclusive economy even before the fed began raising rates the homeownership gap had been widening over the previous decade by 2021 homeownership for black americans was nearly 29 percentage points less than that for white americans according to national association of realtors data published earlier this year banks have failed to live up to promises to support black homeowners in recent years major home lender wells fargo  co pledged in 2017 to lend 60 billion to generate 250000 black homeowners in a decade though in 2020 the lender approved fewer than half of black homeowners’ refinancing applications hispanic and asian individuals also face challenges securing home loans hispanicwhite applicants saw denial rates of 111 last year and asian applicants faced denials at 92 “hispanicwhite” identifies individuals with hispanic ethnicity and white race while “nonhispanicwhite” identifies individuals with nonhispanic ethnicity and white race the ffiec data are based on mortgagelending transactions reported by us financial institutions and are reported for firstlien onetofour family sitebuilt owneroccupied conventional closedend homepurchase loans