Miami FLa. real estate listings and homes for sale, home buying, home selling information – ChoiceOne Mortgage Corp.

My New Blog

Bank of America to critics: Mortgage relief tops industry efforts

December 9th, 2009 12:51 PM

So far this year, Bank of America Corp. has sent more than 160,000 distressed homeowners into the Obama administration’s main foreclosure prevention program – the most of any mortgage player, the bank said Monday.

Citing the latest government data, the bank said it has provided about 20 percent of the industry’s trial home-loan workouts through the Making Homes Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP.

Including the trial loans and other efforts, the bank said it has provided mortgage relief to more than 600,000 homeowners since January 2008.

Its announcement comes less than a week after the Obama administration stepped up pressure on the mortgage industry to help struggling homeowners.

With deposits of $72.8 billion, Bank of America is the largest bank in Florida. It is also the second-largest in Central Florida, with deposits here of more than $8.9 billion.

The Obama administration said last week it would look more closely at both the pace and quality of the loan workouts companies are providing through Making Homes Affordable.

It also raised the possibility that companies could be penalized if their efforts are falling short of real foreclosure prevention.

Recent reports indicate that most of the 650,000 homeowners who have received help through the program are still stuck in its trial phase and haven’t received final approval.

Bank of America insisted it has moved aggressively to help troubled homeowners.

“At Bank of America, we remain focused on providing long-term solutions to help distressed customers sustain homeownership,” said Jack Schakett, the bank’s top credit loss mitigation strategies executive, in a written statement.

The bank did not disclose what overall percentage of distressed mortgage customers have been reached by its loan modification efforts.

Consumer groups and regulators say loan modifications by the industry are reaching only a fraction of the millions who are losing their homes in the foreclosure crisis.

Copyright © 2009 The Orlando Sentinel, Fla., Richard Burnett. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Posted by Marcos Fullana on December 9th, 2009 12:51 PMPost a Comment (0)