Credit unions already working the U.S. Government's Home Affordable Modification Program will likely face additional paperwork from proposed program changes, but will lack the volume of loans for those changes to have much of an impact, according to industry executives.
While some credit union lenders that service mortgages that have been sold on the secondary market are participating in HAMP, relatively few have enough delinquent mortgage loans to make the program worthwhile and many said they have modified members' mortgages more quickly on their own.
The HAMP program provides incentives for loan servicers to modify mortgage loans of borrowers who have fallen into delinquency on their mortgage payments and allow them to keep their homes. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Nov. 30 that it would step up efforts to monitor and press servicers, particularly large bank servicers, to move more borrowers from having trial loan modifications to permanent ones.