City, state and federal agencies have been stepping up efforts to stamp out fraudulent mortgage practices that target communities of color, pricing discrimination and redlining among them. Redlining, the practice of denying credit to qualified applicants who seek loans for homes in specific neighborhoods, is illegal under the 1968 Fair Housing Act. However, a Buffalo-area bank on September 10 agreed to pay nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit that alleges it redlined a large, predominantly black community in that city.