Brown urges banks to help homeowners facing foreclosure

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has urged executives of the nation’s four largest banks to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. 

In a letter Tuesday, Brown stated that a number of constituents have contacted his office saying banks are offering limited assistance in helping them restructure their home loans. The senator used the letter to call on banks to do more to help these individuals. 

“It is in the best interest of your banks to work with responsible borrowers to help them stay in their homes or find other alternatives to foreclosure,” Brown wrote. “Consequently, I ask you to consider the difficulties that Ohioans have described ... and to take a hard look at your institutions’ ability to communicate amongst their various operations, subsidiaries and affiliates, your responsiveness to homeowners’ communications, and the degree to which any shortcomings in these areas are hindering the mortgage modification and short sale processes.”

The letter was sent to Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Wells Fargo.

According to Brown, 14.8 percent of seriously delinquent loans have been modified through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) in Ohio, and 8 percent of trial modifications have been converted into permanent modifications. 

Ohio continues to rank 48 among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in the number of homeowners who have been able to modify their mortgages through HAMP.