6 lenders expand efforts to aid struggling borrowers

Six major lenders agreed to widen their efforts to help borrowers of all loans — not just subprime — and allow seriously overdue homeowners to suspend foreclosures for 30 days while affordable loans are worked out.

The plan, called Project Lifeline, is to be announced today by the Treasury Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a person familiar with the plan said Monday evening.

The plan will initially involve six of the largest mortgage lenders, in hopes that more lenders will sign on. The participants are Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.

All six are involved in a deal the Bush administration brokered late last year with the mortgage industry to freeze rates on some high-cost subprime mortgages for five years to aid borrowers whose introductory "teaser" rates are jumping sharply higher. Since then, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has urged lenders to expand that effort to cover struggling homeowners with conventional mortgages.

The new plan applies to seriously delinquent homeowners, those whose mortgages are 90 days or more past due.

Meanwhile, Countrywide, the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, said it will work with a housing activist group that protested its policies to improve repayment terms for subprime borrowers at risk of losing their homes.

The effort by Countrywide and Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, will "formalize workout programs for borrowers with all types of subprime loans," Countrywide said Monday in a statement. The program will cover delinquent borrowers, as well as those judged likely to fall behind as payments rise on adjustable loans.

Countrywide had been targeted by New Orleans-based Acorn and other housing-advocacy groups that said it had done little to help homeowners amid rising delinquencies and foreclosures.

Under the program with Acorn, Countrywide will convert subprime loans into prime loans or grant five-year extensions of current rates.

Michael Gross, managing director of loan administration for Countrywide, said the modifications will be individualized, based on a borrower's needs.

Jason Merriam, a spokesman for ACORN of Salt Lake City, said that in many cases, delinquent borrowers will be transferred from collections into loss mitigation, "where they can be offered affordable terms for the life of their loan."

People in Utah with home loans with Countrywide or other companies can call the Salt Lake ACORN office for help, at 801-532-2225.

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Contributing: Bloomberg News