CALABASAS, California - Just 10 months after initiating outreach to customers through its National Homeownership Retention Program (NHRP), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has provided mortgage relief to 100,000 eligible homeowners with certain Countrywide subprime and option-ARM mortgages. According to the bank's most recent quarterly progress report, more than 31,000 eligible customers received assistance in the third quarter - the largest three-month program total so far.
"The NHRP is one of the proprietary foreclosure prevention programs we use in addition to the federal government-sponsored Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)," said Jack Schakett, credit loss mitigation strategies executive for Bank of America Home Loans. "Through this and other programs, Bank of America has provided relief through completed and trial modifications to more than 600,000 customers since the beginning of last year."
In October 2008, three months after acquiring Countrywide Financial Corporation, Bank of America announced it had reached agreement with state attorneys general on the NHRP, an innovative program to provide loan modifications to Countrywide customers with loan products that Bank of America discontinued upon acquiring the company. Nearly 400,000 homeowners across the country were identified as potentially eligible for modifications under the NHRP guidelines.
According to the most recent NHRP progress report, between December 1, 2008, when the bank initiated its outreach to potentially eligible borrowers, and September 30, 2009:
- Mortgage modification offers were made to 143,271 homeowners.
- 80,875 customers received mortgage relief under the guidelines of the NHRP program, representing potential aggregate principal and interest savings of $1.6 billion.
The report states that more than 19,500 other NHRP-eligible borrowers entered trial modifications under the federal government's HAMP from the time the program was inaugurated earlier this year through the end of the third quarter. In the six weeks following the close of the reporting period, more than 35,000 additional NHRP-eligible homeowners entered the HAMP trial period, which demonstrates continued strong program momentum, added Schakett.
In addition to loan modifications across the country, the NHRP agreement also provides relocation assistance and foreclosure relief programs in 41 participating states and the District of Columbia.
The third-quarter progress report shows that Bank of America has provided more than $40 million in relocation assistance to customers and tenants in eligible properties that have gone to foreclosure, under terms of the agreement.
The bank has allocated up to $150 million to participating states to provide foreclosure prevention programs and financial relief for eligible borrowers who went into default shortly after taking out a qualifying loan and lost their homes. Letters have been sent to borrowers who are eligible for a relief payment, and a third-party administrator will begin issuing checks in the first quarter of 2010.
|
