HOPE NOW Alliance Created to Help Distressed Homeowners

Category: Bank Of America, Chase, Citibank, WAMU - Washington Mutual, HSBC, Banking, Subprime Lending, Mortgage Banking & Lending, Housing, CIN RSS BY: JPMORGAN CHASE

 

Washington, D.C. - October 10, 2007 - A new national alliance, HOPE NOW, was announced today by Treasury Secretary Paulson and Housing Secretary Jackson to reach out and help homeowners who may not be able to pay their mortgages.

The HOPE NOW collaboration of credit and homeowners' counselors, mortgage servicers, and mortgage market participants was formed with the encouragement of the Department of the Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The alliance will:

• Explore a variety of methods to reach out to at-risk homeowners, including a direct-mail campaign to encourage at-risk borrowers to call their mortgage servicer or a credit counselor.
• Work to improve communications between servicers and non-profit counselors to speed outreach and to develop and explain options for at-risk borrowers.
• Develop standards with investors to enable counseling sessions for homeowners to be funded by servicing contracts.

"Individually, mortgage servicers have undertaken a wide variety of efforts to encourage at-risk customers to work with us on options to avoid foreclosure," said Michael J. Heid, Co-President of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. "HOPE NOW will harness the collective strength of counselors, capital markets investors and mortgage servicers in a more coordinated way and will bring to bear the full power of the government for the benefit of all consumers across our nation."

"We are encouraging servicers and counseling organizations to work together and implement reimbursement procedures where appropriate to keep borrowers in their homes," said George Miller, Executive Director of American Securitization Forum.

Homeowners who are worried about their mortgage should contact their lender as soon as possible or go to the HUD website www.HUD.gov or www.MyMoneyManagement.net to find non profit credit counselors.

HOPE NOW is an alliance between counselors, mortgage market participants, and mortgage servicers to create a unified, coordinated plan to reach and help as many homeowners as possible. The members of this alliance recognize that by working together, they will be more effective than by working independently. The Department of the Treasury and the Department of Housing and Urban Development encouraged these leaders to form this alliance, which includes, as of October 10th, American Financial Services Association, American Securitization Forum, Assurant, Inc., Bank of America, CCCS Atlanta, Inc., Citigroup Inc., Consumer Bankers Association, Consumer Mortgage Coalition, Countrywide Financial Corporation, Fannie Mae, The Financial Services Roundtable, First Horizon National Corporation, Freddie Mac, GMAC ResCap, Homeownership Preservation Foundation, Housing Partnership Network, The Housing Policy Council, HSBC North America Holdings, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co, National City, NeighborWorks America, Mortgage Bankers Association, Option One Mortgage, PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, State Farm Insurance Companies, SunTrust Mortgage, Inc., Washington Mutual, Inc., Wells Fargo & Company. More companies and organizations are expected to join in the coming months.

Visit www.HOPENOW.com for more information.

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