Years in the banking industry convinced Todd Sibley that there had to be a more effective way to deal with homeowners in danger of foreclosure.

Sibley figured that if someone could sit down with each of these homeowners and discuss the options available to them, a better solution than foreclosure often could be found.

Armed with that idea, Sibley founded Titanium Solutions, a Salt Lake City-based provider of mortgage default services to companies nationwide.

What Titanium Solutions does is simple, but new to the industry. Working for mortgage providers, insurers and investors, the company makes personal, often face-to-face, contact with troubled borrowers to discuss their options, with the goal of avoiding foreclosure and the huge costs — to lenders and borrowers — associated with it.

Traditionally, most providers have tried to contact homeowners via mail and telephone, with contact rates in the low single digits. Titanium Solutions, by contrast, is able to reach more than 50 percent of troubled homeowners with its one-on-one approach.

As a result, roughly 30 percent of the homeowners contacted by Titanium Solutions have been able to avoid foreclosure, saving around $1 billion in foreclosure-related losses for the company's clients.

Though founded in 1999, well before the current U.S. mortgage crisis, Titanium Solutions' focus seems all the more relevant now to help alleviate the wave of threatened foreclosures across the nation.