Wells Fargo has revealed that through the first seven months of this year it has modified more than 240,000 mortgage loans, including 20,219 trial modification starts under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
Reportedly, the modifications – include changes in loan terms, interest rates, and principal – were completed with the goal of creating sustainable mortgage payments for consumers facing financial difficulties. Wells Fargo expects that in the near future HAMP can be further refined to more broadly to serve other customers, such as those with pay option adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs).
The bank has claimed that more than 90 of every 100 Wells Fargo customers have remained current on their mortgage payments. In addition to lowering payments through modifications, for the first seven months of 2009, Wells Fargo has also completed more than 860,000 refinances for Americans. It has added that, to assist homeowners in crisis, it has hired and trained 4,000 people in the first half of the year for a total of 11,500 US-based staff. The company also says that within weeks it will eliminate the customer service backlog created by the time lag between when the government announced HAMP and when the guidelines were defined.
Mike Heid, co-president of home mortgage at Wells Fargo, said: “HAMP is an important part of the administration’s efforts to provide mortgage relief and stabilize the housing market. Now that the program details are largely complete, our company has been accelerating our use of HAMP. We’re confident we can achieve our portion of the government’s goal to reach 500,000 HAMP trial modification starts by Nov. 1.”
