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Thu 13 May 2010
Intended Audience

Bank of America has completed more than 56,000 permanent mortgage modifications under the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), and has now completed a total of more than 600,000 modifications through all available programs since January 2008.

“We were able to convert nearly 24,000 Bank of America customers from trial to permanent modifications in the past month, completing the process for more homeowners than in any previous month,” said Jack Schakett, credit loss mitigation strategies executive for Bank of America Home Loans.

The bank continues to evaluate homeowners’ eligibility and activate trial modifications while focusing on completing as many permanent modifications as possible for those who have successfully completed their trial payment period. A decrease in the number of active trial modifications reflects successful conversions to completed modifications. Additionally, the implementation of new government requirements for financial documentation will slow the inflow of new trial modifications.

Reaching out to customers

As required by government guidelines, Bank of America is notifying customers who did not meet eligibility requirements for HAMP, or who did not meet the requirements of their trial period plan, that they are not eligible to complete a permanent HAMP modification.

“We are letting customers know that we may explore other homeownership retention options, depending on individual circumstances and investor guidelines,” Schakett said.

Bank of America has completed nearly 550,000 modifications outside of HAMP since January 2008, more than 59,000 of them in the first four months of this year. All told, through HAMP and non-HAMP solutions, Bank of America has completed more than 605,000 modifications since January 2008, including 115,000 this year.

If all homeownership retention solutions have been exhausted, a short sale or deed-in-lieu may help the customer avoid the more severe negative impacts of foreclosure.

Leading the way in program implementation

Bank of America continues to support and lead in implementation of all facets of the government’s Making Home Affordable initiative.

The first offers under the new second lien modification program (2MP), were mailed on April 1, within days of Treasury issuing the program guidelines.

In April Bank of America became operational in the Home Affordable Foreclosure Avoidance (HAFA) program, which provides a streamlined, cooperative and encouraging approach to move homeowners who are ineligible for a HAMP modification into the short sale or deed-in-lieu process.

Bank of America continues to lead the industry in refinancing loans through the Home Affordable Refinancing Program (HARP) with more than 200,000 mortgages refinanced. These include more than 110,000 mortgages with loan balances exceeding 80 percent of the property value that otherwise may be difficult to refinance in today’s tight credit markets.
Additionally, implementation of recently announced enhancements to Bank of America’s National Homeownership Retention Program will begin soon.

For more information, see the May 13 press release.

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