At Meeting, Servicers Agree to Boost Mortgage Mods

by Paul Kiel
ProPublica, July 29, 2009, 10:01 a.m.

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On Tuesday, administration officials met with representatives from the loan servicers participating in the federal mortgage modification program. The result: a (handshake) commitment to "significantly [increase] the rate at which they are performing loan modifications," as the press release from the Treasury Department put it. A new benchmark emerged: 500,000 trial modifications begun by Nov. 1. (Each modification requires a three-month trial period.)

It's not clear how much of an increase that would represent, however. At least 200,000 have already begun, according to the administration's latest data. And a Treasury official boasted to the Washington Post earlier this week that servicers were modifying more than 20,000 loans per week. If that rate remains the same through October, servicers will almost reach the 500,000 goal, so only a slight increase in modifications should ensure that they surpass it.

Other links this morning:
Banks Asked to Ramp Up Loan Help (WaPo)
Subprime Mortgage Companies Warn on US Foreclosures (Reuters)
Countrywide Mortgage Not Living up to Deal, Critics Say (Miami Herald)
House Panel Endorses Bill Giving Shareholders More Input on Executive Pay (LAT)

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This article is part of an ongoing investigation:

Foreclosure Crisis: Banks and Government Fail Homeowners

Banks and the government have fallen short in helping homeowners in danger of foreclosure.

The Story So Far

Systemic failures at the country’s banks and mortgage servicers have exacerbated the most severe foreclosure crisis since the Great Depression, and government efforts to limit the damage have fallen short. ProPublica created an unrivaled database of homeowners who have faced foreclosure, opened a Facebook page to encourage homeowners to share their stories, wrote profiles of some of them, and incorporated their experiences into our reporting. We also provided a comprehensive rundown of the numbers behind the crisis.