BOSTON — A new study from the Quantitative Analysis Unit of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has alleged redlining in the provision of consumer credit.

The paper, Credit Card Redlining, did not distinguish consumer credit lending by issuer but reported finding definite redlining by neighborhood.

"Individual A lives in a predominantly White neighborhood and individual B lives in a majority Black one," the researchers wrote. "This paper's principal observation is that remarkably, in spite of identical scores and identical community characteristics, our individual in the Black neighborhood receives less consumer credit (e.g. fewer credit cards) than the individual in the White area. That is, in spite of the fact that both have been assessed to have similar risks of nonpayment, as determined by the credit score, the person living in the Black area has less ability to access credit. Notice here that the example does not identify the race of the individuals, only the neighborhoods in which they live," the paper added.