More foreclosure moratoria

Seriously, can I stop paying my mortgage now? What makes others "troubled" and not me, when I struggle each month to shell out a mortgage payment? Do I get rewarded for actually paying my bills?

 

If nothing else, news like this just gives people more incentive to stop being responsible. Isn't that when the government has to stop stepping in the way, or else it will end up taking over it all? If there's no consequence to being irresponsible, then let's go for broke!

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Citigroup, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley Halt Foreclosures (Update1)

 

By Margaret Chadbourn

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley agreed to suspend foreclosures until next month and signaled a readiness to help the Obama administration craft a housing plan to modify mortgages for troubled borrowers.

Citigroup halted foreclosures through March 12, or when a plan is completed, the company said today in a statement. Morgan Stanley imposed a moratorium for three weeks on loans from Saxon Mortgage Services Inc., a spokeswoman said. JPMorgan stopped foreclosures until March 6, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon wrote to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank in a letter released today in Washington.

Frank asked bank executives at a committee hearing Feb. 11 to freeze foreclosures until Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner can set up a program. Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit committed to halt actions. The Office of Thrift Supervision has urged savings- and-loans to suspend their legal actions until a plan is ready.

"Three weeks is adequate time for the Treasury to announce -- and for us to implement -- a new plan," Dimon wrote to Frank. "We stand ready to work with you to put the appropriate process in place, including a national modification standard."

"Citi is taking the necessary steps to help American homeowners keep their homes," according to the statement. The company said it worked with about 440,000 borrowers to stop foreclosures since the start of the housing crisis in 2007.

U.S. bank regulators in December said 55 percent of loans modified during the first quarter of 2008 were 30 or more days delinquent after six months. "Re-default rates increased each month and showed no signs of leveling off after six months," Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said in a statement.

The Obama administration outlined a plan this week that would provide housing relief, help remove illiquid assets clogging banks' balance sheets and spur lending. Geithner pledged to buy and modify troubled homeowner mortgages, and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the aid could be as much as $100 billion.