1.   Among the first mortgage applicants was Karol Toombs.

2.   Financial institutions are already required to gather race and gender information for mortgage applicants.

3.   In one celebrated case, the Justice Department forced a suburban Washington bank that had few black mortgage applicants to open an office in a black neighborhood.

4.   Millions of other people have been affected as well, including tourists, veterans, mortgage applicants, contractors and businesses near national parks and other sites.

5.   Ronald Lathern, with wife, Bridgette and son, Ronald Jr. Critics say that the bank discriminates against black mortgage applicants in the Washington area.

6.   The settlement followed tests in which white officials posing as mortgage applicants were treated better than black officials even though they presented similar financial profiles.

7.   To protect against fraud, big lenders in California have been working with the IRS to verify incomes of certain mortgage applicants, mostly the self-employed.