MakingHomeAffordable.com reports on Major Servicers Activity

Administration finds Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ocwen Loan Servicing, Wells Fargo in Need of Substantial Improvement under Making Home Affordable Program; Begins Withholding Financial Incentives for Three Servicers


WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury today released the May edition of the Obama Administration's Housing Scorecard. New to this month’s report are detailed assessments for the 10 largest mortgage servicers participating in the Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program, setting a new industry benchmark for disclosure on servicer assistance to struggling homeowners. In addition to providing greater transparency about servicer performance in the program, the new assessments are intended to prompt mortgage servicers to correct identified deficiencies to improve program implementation and more effectively reach eligible homeowners. “While we continue to get tens of thousands of new homeowners into mortgage modifications each month, we need servicers to step up their performance to meet the needs of those still struggling,” said acting Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad. “These assessments set a new benchmark by providing an unprecedented level of disclosure around servicer performance and will serve to keep the pressure on servicers to more effectively assist struggling families.”

Since the inception of the Making Home Affordable Program, Treasury has required participating servicers to take specific actions to improve their servicing processes. The new Servicer Assessments summarize performance for the 10 largest Making Home Affordable participating servicers from reviews largely conducted throughout the first quarter of 2011 on three categories of program implementation: identifying and contacting homeowners; homeowner evaluation and assistance; and program reporting, management and governance. Based on the reviews for this quarter, four servicers have been identified as needing substantial improvement and six servicers have been identified as needing moderate improvement. The servicers identified as in need of substantial improvement are:

•Bank of America, NA;
•J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.;
•Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC; and
•Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
While servicers are required to address all instances of non-compliance, beginning this month, the Treasury Department is withholding financial incentives for three servicers: Bank of America, NA; J.P Morgan Chase Bank, NA; and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Treasury will not withhold financial incentives owed to Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC for this quarter as their compliance results were substantially and negatively affected by a large servicing portfolio acquired during the compliance testing period.

Read the full story:
http://www.realestaterama.com/2011/06/15/obama-administration-releases-may-housing-scorecard-featuring-new-making-home-affordable-servicer-assessments-regional-spotlight-on-phoenix-housing-data-2-ID09779.html

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