Honda Motor Corp. has reached a settlement with federal regulators to refund $24 million to minority borrowers they allegedly discriminated against by charging them higher interest rates than white customers.

According to the Los Angeles Times, as part of the agreement company officials also pledged to change the way it prices its loans for dealer markups.

Estimates are that current pricing policies, which have been in effect since at least 2011, resulted in thousands of black, Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander borrowers paying as much as $250 more over the duration of their auto loans.

"Honda's financing practices that allowed dealerships to mark up individual loans resulted in illegal discrimination, with minority car buyers paying more for their loans than non-minority buyers with similar credit histories," said U.S. Atty. Eileen M. Decker of the Central District of California.

Company officials will now be entrusted with the task of contacting borrowers and issuing refunds for the amounts they overpaid. In addition, Honda agreed to spend $1 million on a financial education program on auto loans for minorities.

The nation's ninth-largest auto lender, Honda has also agreed to limit dealer markups to 1.25 percent point for loans of five years or less and 1 percentage point for longer loans.

While maintaining they had "a difference of opinion" with the government agencies conducting the probe about the methodology they used to determine the company's auto pricing for minorities, company officials added, "we nonetheless share a fundamental agreement in the importance of fair lending."

In recent years, The Justice Department and the consumer bureau have been sharply focusing on the issue of discrimination within the auto lending industry. In 2013, the Washington Post reported Ally Financial Inc. agreed to pay $98 million to settle similar allegations of discriminatory auto pricing.