Nov 1 (Reuters) – The top U.S. consumer financial watchdog agency on Friday said it had reached a settlement in a long-running lawsuit with a Chicago mortgage lender over alleged racial discrimination.

Under the terms of the proposed agreement, Townstone Financial would pay a $105,000 fine into the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s victims relief fund.

In a statement on its website, the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented Townstone, said the company neither admitted nor denied the allegations and settled due to government’s superior legal resources. “This case should never have been brought,” attorney Steve Simpson said.