The Obama administration's $50 billion "Making Home Affordable" mortgage relief plan is picking up steam, with 360,000 borrowers, or 12 percent of the eligible group, signing up for a three-month trial mortgage modification.
"There are signs the plan is working," says Michael Barr, assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions. "But we can do better."
Bank of America has enrolled about 7 percent of its 836,000 eligible loans, compared with 25 percent for JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The Treasury Department's decision to publish these numbers is driving the banks to do better. Lenders are "concerned about the report card showing them in a worse light than their peers," says David Stevens, assistant secretary for housing and FHA commissioner at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "Nobody wants to be a low performer on that score card."
Source: The Associated Press (09/09/2009)