Lenders Step Up Effort to Avert Foreclosures

Wall Street Journal (02/12/08) P. A3; Paletta, Damian; Hagerty, James R.
At the urging of the White House, a half-dozen of the nation's biggest mortgage lenders are stepping up their efforts to save homeowners from imminent foreclosure. Dubbed Project Lifeline, this latest plan has Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. all promising to seek contact with homeowners who are 90 or more days overdue on their mortgages. In some instances, homeowners will be given the opportunity to "pause" their foreclosure proceedings for 30 days while lenders try to make the loans affordable. The participating banks, all of which are members of the so-called Hope Now Alliance, are collaborating with HUD and the U.S. Treasury Department as part of the initiative.