Skip navigation
Mortgage Video Gallery
Despite the extension of the home buyer tax credit, real estate executives expect more pain ahead, with CNBC's Diana Oli...
Hans Goetti, CIO at LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, Singapore remains skeptical about the current equity rally. He explains w...
The CNBC news team and Jim Iuorio, of TJM Institutional Services, parse today's economic data.
If you want to invest in Asian banks, bet your money on names from India, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore, suggests R...
Discussing Pulte Homes' quarter and the future of the housing market, with Richard Dugas, Pulte Homes Chairman & CEO and...


Current DateTime: 05:11:45 07 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24355697

Current DateTime: 05:11:45 07 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24890560
  • Winterizing Your Portfolio

      If 2009 was the winter of our discontent, will 2010 be a winter wonderland for investors? A lot depends on the recovery—or lack thereof.

  • Investor's Guide to Real Estate

      Some even say the long-awaited recovery is here. Regardless, buyers and sellers alike can profit from our guide.

  • Alternative Investing

      Stocks and bonds? Sure. But it's a big world out there for investors.

powered by digg
Citigroup Steps Up Efforts to Refinance Mortgages
By: Reuters | 11 Nov 2008 | 01:34 PM ET
Text Size

Citigroup Monday became the latest major U.S. lender to try to help borrowers stay in
their homes, launching a program it said may result in $20 billion of mortgage refinancings.

Foreclosed California home
AP
Foreclosed California home

The second-largest U.S. bank by assets expects in the next six months to reach out to 500,000 borrowers it said may need help to stay current on payments. It is focusing particularly on areas "likely to face extreme economic distress."

Citigroup [C  Loading...      ()   ] also agreed to halt foreclosures for struggling borrowers who live in their homes, have sufficient income to afford lower payments, and are making an effort to work out their problems with the bank.

Monday's changes cover borrowers whose mortgages Citigroup owns, rather than those it has sold to investors. Citigroup said it also streamlined procedures to rework delinquent home loans, modeling it on a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp plan to ease terms for many IndyMac borrowers.

The bank said it has since 2007 already taken steps to help 370,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure. It said it ended September with $202 billion of North American residential real estate loans and a $646.5 billion mortgage servicing portfolio.

Citigroup joined Bank of America [BAC  Loading...      ()   ] and JPMorgan Chase

[JPM  Loading...      ()   ] among lenders to recently announce steps to limit foreclosures.

Lenders are acting as Washington faces pressure to do more to help borrowers, after ommitting hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to help support or bail out financial companies.

Foreclosures are soaring as home values and economic conditions decline, leaving many borrowers unable to keep up with payments or owing more than their homes are worth.

Home prices fell by a record 16.6 percent in August from a year earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Foreclosure filings between July and September rose 71 percent to a record 765,558, according to RealtyTrac.

For Investors ...

JPMorgan on Oct 31 said it would try within the next two years to renegotiate $70 billion of mortgages held by 400,000 borrowers. It also suspended foreclosures on loans it owns for about 90 days.

Bank of America earlier in October announced its own plan aimed at nearly 400,000 former Countrywide Financial customers, as part of a settlement with 11 state attorneys general. The bank bought Countrywide in July.

Wells Fargo [WFC  Loading...      ()   ], another major lender, has said it planned to refinance some troubled adjustable-rate mortgages it would take on when it finished buying Wachovia [WB  Loading...      ()   ].

Copyright 2009 Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Tools:
Print EmailAdd This share icon
  • digg share

CNBC HIGHLIGHTS

  • Rumors abound that Oprah will leave her show to start a new network. What would this mean for daytime TV?
  • Berkeley's Chez Panisse and the trend of eating locally grown, pesticide-free seasonal foods.
  • Jim Cramer
  • Cramer did the research and found eight stocks that lead the pack. Read on to get his top picks.
  • Hideki Matsui
  • Did Hideki Matsui’s performance make it more likely that the Yankees will pay to have him back?
  • Which wines should you bring—or serve—with holiday meals this year? Ask a connoisseur.
  • Two competitors in this year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas have stories fit for Hollywood.
ADD COMMENTS
Remaining characters


Current DateTime: 01:02:03 07 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29778428

Current DateTime: 01:02:03 07 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779196

Current DateTime: 01:02:03 07 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779199

Current DateTime: 01:02:03 07 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779198
  Data is a real-time snapshot  *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis

© 2009 CNBC, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
A Division of NBC Universal
Thomson ReutersThomson Reuters