Bank of America has provided mortgage relief through concluded and trial modifications to more than 600,000 homeowners since January 2008. "At Bank of America, we remain focused on providing long-term solutions to help distressed customers sustain homeownership," said Jack Schakett, credit loss mitigation strategies executive of Bank of America Home Loans. "Through the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and our own programs, we are moving aggressively to assist as many homeowners as possible."
The Treasury Department's most recent Making Home Affordable Program Servicer Performance Report, reflecting activity through October, indicated that Bank of America was responsible for about one in five HAMP trial modifications, leading the industry with the highest number of trial modifications and offers extended. As of the end of November, Bank of America Home Loans had increased to more than 160,000 customers active in a HAMP trial modification.
"As we focus on assisting our customers to successfully convert to permanent modifications, we are making extensive efforts, through phone, mail and face-to-face contact, to help our customers know exactly what documentation is required and the risks of not responding by the government's program deadlines," said Schakett.
Bank of America will continue to work with borrowers who cannot meet the requirements for a HAMP modification using its own modification programs, short-term relief or other foreclosure prevention tools that may address their individual situations. Through its established homeownership retention programs, Bank of America has concluded non-HAMP loan modifications for more than 450,000 customers since January 2008, including about 225,000 modifications so far this year.
Bank of America is also the industry leader in the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the second key component of the Making Home Affordable initiative. Since becoming the first major lender to originate HARP loans last spring, more than 100,000 Bank of America customers who are current on their mortgage payments have benefitted from enhanced loan-to-value ratios or streamlined processes of the HARP program.
In total, through HARP and other programs, Bank of America has provided $215 billion to refinance existing mortgages, helping 949,000 customers save money on their mortgages so far this year.
Bank of America has taken major steps to reach eligible homeowners and improve the level of service they receive, including:
► Expansion of default management staffing to 13,000.
► Reassignment of hundreds of mortgage loan officers to serve as case workers to assist customers in the conversion from trial to permanent modifications.
► Launch of a home loans assistance Web site in September to provide customers easy online access to gain answers to their questions about the loan modification process: http://homeloans.bankofamerica.com/homeloanhelp.
► Implementation of a door-to-door campaign to reach borrowers who have not responded to trial modification offers or provided necessary documentation.
► Participation in more than 200 community outreach events in 30 states.
► Sponsorship of the Alliance for Stabilizing Our Communities, the first national multicultural outreach and home retention collaboration with the National Council of La Raza, National Urban League and National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development.
► Piloting the company's first Customer Assistance Center in Brea, Calif., that provides face-to-face counseling on mortgage and home equity loans, credit card accounts and personal loans.
For more information, visit www.bankofamerica.com.
