The Secret Test That Ensures Lenders Win on Loan Mods
“NPV Test: Failed.”
That was the red-lettered verdict on the computer screen of a CitiMortgage negotiator in June. The result: An 83-year-old widow in Illinois was denied a loan modification through the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable program, even though the employee admitted in an e-mail, “I am unable to come up with a reason for the denial.”
The Net Present Value test is a complex computer model used by loan servicers to determine whether a homeowner qualifies for the federal loan modification program. … more…
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Emily Witt recently graduated with honors from the Stabile Center for Investigative Reporting at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Prior to graduate school, she spent a year in Mozambique on a Fulbright fellowship, where she researched Mozambican cinema and reported for U.N. news agencies IRIN and PlusNews. Before Mozambique she was a staff writer at the Miami New Times, where she was a finalist for a Livingston Award. She has written for The New York Times, Oxford American, n+1, Men’s Journal and other publications. She graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and Art Semiotics.
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