Obama Admin to Mortgage Servicers: Do More (Please)

by Paul Kiel
ProPublica, July 10, 2009, 10:16 a.m.

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If you've been following our coverage of the Obama administration's foreclosure-prevention program, you know that it's been slow going. Mortgage servicers are overwhelmed, and borrowers are frustrated. The administration has been increasingly outspoken about its own frustration with servicers, and on Thursday, according to the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan took that frustration one step further with a letter to the servicers participating in the program.

You can read the letter here (PDF). The servicers should "devote substantially more resources to the program," the letter said, including beefing up staffing and training. A few of the largest servicers defended their performance so far to the Post.

Our survey of major servicers participating in the program last week showed that many had purposely concentrated on the most delinquent borrowers first before modifying loans for other customers who might not be in imminent danger of foreclosure.

Other links this morning:
Bank Stock Warrants Undervalued, Panel Says (NYT) & here's the Congressional Oversight Panel's report
J.P. Morgan to Send TARP Warrants to Market (WSJ)
AIG Seeks Clearance For More Bonuses (WaPo)
With Sale of Its Good Assets, G.M. Tries for a Fresh Start (NYT)
Citigroup Shakes Up Leaders to Pacify U.S. (WSJ)
FDIC Said to be Unwilling to Back CIT Debt on Risk (Bloomberg)
Fed Role Protecting Consumers Debated (WaPo)

Follow @paulkiel

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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.