I think that's a drastic misinterpretation of federal lending guidelines that require lenders to make good faith efforts to lend to and establish locations in under-served, economically depressed neighborhoods.

 And what the banks did went beyond simply lending on the FHA-insured programs--they went nuts with it, and in bad faith misrepresented the loans they were issuing so they could pile more and more volume... Basically took advantage of the insurance and fraudulently altered their numbers so they could do so.  

 Whatever you think of the FHA lending programs, to say "who wouldn't take that deal?"  like it's not a thing is insane.  Who wouldn't take that deal?  An organization interested in ethics on any level, or one that wants to operate in a healthy economy, or one that doesn't want to defraud its government or lie on behalf of poor people who want bigger houses than they can afford.  One that would rather rely on profitability than insurance.  One that takes rational and calculated risks and not stupid risks fueled by its lowest level employees' incentives.