U.S. Bank NA is facing a racial discrimination lawsuit from John Span, who is Black and who formerly served as a loan underwriter in the Minneapolis-based bank's auto-lending group.

The complaint, filed Nov. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Span was subjected to "a demeaning, hostile, and racist work environment."

The complaint also alleges that "the racist environment in U.S. Bank's indirect auto lending group" resulted in discriminatory practices toward loan applicants.

"Applicants with non-white names would have their applications denied despite otherwise being qualified for a loan by these white underwriters who believed this conduct would help them more easily meet bank metrics and increase their competition," the complaint stated.

Finally, the complaint alleges that Span's manager, who was hired in September 2018, was "overtly hostile to Span," who was his only Black direct report.

"Relying on racist stereotypes of Black intelligence and absent any knowledge of Span's past performance," the manager "did not 'trust' Span's analytical abilities and never would," the lawsuit states.

Span complained to upper management, but the complaints were never heeded, and Span was ultimately terminated in July 2020, according to the complaint.

"U.S. Bank does not condone discrimination of any kind in the workplace or against customers," a U.S. Bancorp spokesperson said in an email. "We take these accusations and matters very seriously. We deny that we acted in a discriminatory way against the plaintiff or our customers and will vigorously defend the company in court."

U.S. Bancorp is the parent company of U.S. Bank.