CitiMortgage and CitiFinancial North America, both units of Citigroup, jave launched a national foreclosure suspension program for Citi-owned mortgages to allow distressed homeowners to remain in their homes through the holiday season.
During the 30 day suspension, effective December 18, 2009 through January 17, 2010, borrowers with first mortgage loans owned by CitiMortgage and CitiFinancial North America and who meet certain other criteria will not be subject to foreclosure sales or foreclosure notifications.
Citi’s national holiday foreclosure suspension affects only those loans owned by Citi, approximately 20% of the company’s $746 billion mortgage servicing and lending portfolio. In addition, evictions on real estate owned properties (REO) will cease during this time. Citi is of the opinion that the national suspension will affect approximately 2,000 borrowers scheduled to have foreclosure sales and another 2,000 that were to receive foreclosure notifications in the next 30 days.
Sanjiv Das, president and CEo of CitiMortgage, said: “We hope that with this suspension we can make the holidays a little less stressful for our customers who are going through a very difficult time. And we will continue to look for meaningful ways to assist our customers experiencing hardship.”
Mary McDowell, president and CEO of CitiFinancial North America, said: “CitiFinancial remains committed to working closely with customers, community leaders, business partners, the government and other stakeholders to address the national housing situation. We remain committed to finding ways to keep people in their homes.”
