On Thursday, the Justice Department announced SunTrust Banks Inc.’s mortgage-lending division would pay $21 million to settle charges that borrowers were charged higher fees based on their race or national origin between 2005 and 2009. The settlement comes after a two-and-a-half-year investigation by the DOJ which included reviewing internal company documents and data on more than 850,000 residential mortgage loans SunTrust Mortgage originated between 2005 and 2009. The DOJ found SunTrust Mortgage’s regional retail offices and national network of mortgage brokers engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination that increased loan prices for many black and Latino borrowers.