Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Treasury Tightens Screws on Mortgage Firms

On Monday, the Obama administration announced a few steps they are planning to take to pressure lending institutions. The Federal government could no longer ignore complains from taxpayers who still cannot find the long-term loan assistance they need. CNN Money.com published a great article explaining how the government plans to focus on helping borrowers get into permanent modifications.

Government swat teams will go to the institutions to see what the holdup is and banks will have to submit progress reports twice a day during December.

"Now it's up to the banks to do their part to covert borrowers to permanent modifications," said Michael Barr, an assistant Treasury secretary. "Servicers to date have not done a good enough job."

Only a tiny percentage of troubled homeowners have received permanent modifications, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the $75 billion effort. Treasury officials will release the first comprehensive look at the conversions next week.

Top loan servicers will be required to report the status of each modification and their plan to reach a decision. Also, these servicers must say how they will communicate decisions to borrowers.

Continue reading at CNN.com…

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