B of A Reports More Loans to Blacks in ’91 : Lending: The bank releases 1991 figures on home loans. First Interstate also claims improvement on loans to most ethnic groups.

Bank of America increased the number of home loans made to blacks in California by 36% last year, a development hailed by community groups Tuesday that had been highly critical of the San Francisco-based bank for being too inactive in 1990.

Separately, Los Angeles-based First Interstate Bank of California said that it declined fewer homes loans to all ethnic groups except Latinos in 1991. The bank’s numbers also showed it made more home loans to Latinos than in 1990, and fewer loans to blacks.

According to data released by Bank of America, the bank made 1,907 loans to blacks in 1991. Loans to Latino customers increase 17%, to 5,987. Loans to whites rose 12% to 56,670, while loans to Asians dropped 5% to 5,863.

Blacks and Latinos continued to be rejected for mortgages at much higher rates than whites, although there was slight improvement from 1990. B of A denied 1.5 loan applications for blacks and Latinos for every one application from whites that was denied. That is down slightly from a 1.6-to-1 ratio in 1990. The biggest reason for rejection was credit history, with insufficient income to cover debt as the second major reason.

The bank’s lending record became an issue during its recent acquisition of Security Pacific. The Greenlining Coalition, a community group that monitors bank lending, said B of A demonstrated “significant improvement,� although it added that more should be done. The data includes applications to buy homes, refinance and loans for home improvement. The data is compiled as called for by the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

B of A Executive Vice President Donald A. Mullane said he did not have specific numbers for Los Angeles County, but said he believes that the increase was higher than the statewide jump.

First Interstate reported that it denied 29% of home loan applications made by blacks, down from 34% in 1990. Whites had 16% of their home loan applications rejected, compared to 24% a year earlier. In five minority categories, First Interstate approved 59% of the applicants, compared to 78% approval for whites.

First Interstate said it made 83 more loans to Latinos in 1991, up 8%, which it attributed to an aggressive campaign to increase lending to Latinos. But the percentage of those approved fell from 61% to 53%. First Interstate approved 254 residential loans to blacks, down from 317 in 1990. It did not break out figures for Los Angeles County.