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The program is designed to help homeowners "avoid foreclosure by modifying loans to a level that is affordable for borrowers".
"The failure of the Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) to even come close to meeting its stated goal of helping 'as many as three to four million financially struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure by modifying loans to a level that is affordable for borrowers now and sustainable over the long term,' is deeply troubling," Issa said in the statement.
Data on delinquencies reinforces the notion that servicers are inclined to let problem loans float in purgatory — neither taking control of houses and selling them, nor modifying loans to give homeowners a break.
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But supporters say it would guarantee that lenders enter negotiations to modify loans to struggling homeowners.
Beyond all that, the servicers have a conflict that all but guarantees they will not modify loans to maximize bondholder value.
A group of economists at the Boston Federal Reserve said in a recent paper that foreclosure prevention programs could be more effective if they gave direct aid to struggling homeowners, rather than modified loans to reduce monthly payments.
The most important role for public policy is to provide incentives for servicers to restructure and modify loans, to make certain that shared appreciation contracts are part of the policy mix, and to address the legal barriers to modifying securitized loans.
On Friday, Bair introduced a proposal to allocate $24.4 billion of the bailout specifically to modify loans to prevent 1.5 million foreclosures, but was opposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Then, too, as my colleague David Dayen has written, the banks themselves have been just as sluggish when it comes to modifying loans as they were to reach the settlements.
Until recently, investors have objected to modifying loans because the income generated by such mortgages would be lower than under the terms of the original loans.
Of the $30 billion obligated to modifying loans, about $17 billion, or nearly three-fifths, is slated for BofA, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo, Treasury data as of Oct. 19 show.
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