Washington, D.C. - October 10, 2007 -
A new national alliance, HOPE NOW, was
announced today by Treasury Secretary
Paulson and Housing Secretary Jackson to
reach out and help homeowners who may
not be able to pay their mortgages.
The HOPE
NOW collaboration of credit and
homeowners' counselors, mortgage
servicers, and mortgage market
participants was formed with the
encouragement of the Department of the
Treasury and Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
The alliance will:
-
Explore a variety of methods to
reach out to at-risk homeowners,
including a direct-mail campaign to
encourage at-risk borrowers to call
their mortgage servicer or a credit
counselor.
-
Work to improve communications
between servicers and non-profit
counselors to speed outreach and to
develop and explain options for
at-risk borrowers.
-
Develop standards with investors to
enable counseling sessions for
homeowners to be funded by servicing
contracts.
"Individually, mortgage servicers have
undertaken a wide variety of efforts to
encourage at-risk customers to work with
us on options to avoid foreclosure,"
said Michael J. Heid,
Co-President of Wells Fargo Home
Mortgage. "HOPE NOW will
harness the collective strength of
counselors, capital markets investors
and mortgage servicers in a more
coordinated way and will bring to bear
the full power of the government for the
benefit of all consumers across our
nation."
"We
are encouraging servicers and counseling
organizations to work together and
implement reimbursement procedures where
appropriate to keep borrowers in their
homes," said George Miller,
Executive Director of American
Securitization Forum.
Homeowners who are worried about their
mortgage should contact their lender as
soon as possible or go to the HUD
website
www.HUD.gov or
www.MyMoneyManagement.net to find
non profit credit counselors.
HOPE NOW is an alliance
between counselors, mortgage market
participants, and mortgage servicers to
create a unified, coordinated plan to
reach and help as many homeowners as
possible. The members of this alliance
recognize that by working together, they
will be more effective than by working
independently. The Department of the
Treasury and the Department of Housing
and Urban Development encouraged these
leaders to form this alliance, which
includes, as of October 10th, American
Financial Services Association, American
Securitization Forum, Assurant, Inc.,
Bank of America, CCCS Atlanta, Inc.,
Citigroup Inc., Consumer Bankers
Association, Consumer Mortgage
Coalition, Countrywide Financial
Corporation, Fannie Mae, The Financial
Services Roundtable, First Horizon
National Corporation, Freddie Mac, GMAC
ResCap, Homeownership Preservation
Foundation, Housing Partnership Network,
The Housing Policy Council, HSBC North
America Holdings, Inc., JPMorgan Chase &
Co, National City, NeighborWorks
America, Mortgage Bankers Association,
Option One Mortgage, PMI Mortgage
Insurance Co., Securities Industry and
Financial Markets Association, State
Farm Insurance Companies, SunTrust
Mortgage, Inc., Washington Mutual, Inc.,
Wells Fargo & Company. More companies
and organizations are expected to join
in the coming months.
Visit
www.HOPENOW.com for more
information.
