SunTrust Mortgage Inc. agreed Thursday to pay $21 million to settle a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in its lending practices...A complaint filed by the department in U.S. District Court in Richmond said SunTrust Mortgage charged more than 20,000 black and Hispanic borrowers more than similarly qualified non-Hispanic white borrowers between 2005 and 2009...in 75 geographic markets stretching from Virginia Beach to San Francisco...SunTrust Mortgage denied wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement to avoid expensive and potentially risky litigation. "SunTrust strongly believes in the principles of fair lending," company spokesman Mike McCoy...said...Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said the agreement is second only to last year's record $335 million fair-lending settlement with Countrywide [now part of Bank of America].