October 6, 2011 (Jeff Alan)

Wells Fargo reports that 12,076 active trial or completed loan mortgage modifications were posted in August, up from 8,784 in July. As of August 31, 2011, Wells Fargo says it has completed or has in active trial 716,945 mortgage loan modifications since January 2009, up from 704,869 at the end of July.

About 85 percent of those loans, 608,325, were modified through the company’s own loan modification programs while the remaining 15 percent, 108,620, were modified through the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Those percentages were unchanged from July.

“When customers 60 days past due on their loans engage with us, we help 7 of every 10 to avoid foreclosure,” said Michael DeVito, executive vice president, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Default Servicing. “As a result, we do more than 2 modifications for every 1 foreclosure sale. This is largely due to the significant number of attempts we make to offer assistance through telephone calls, written correspondence and other outreach strategies.”

Seventy-two percent of the customers who received a loan modification got them before their home entered the foreclosure process. Wells Fargo’s home retention efforts have helped 196,000 unemployed and under-employed customers keep their homes, including 2,900 retentions completed through the government’s Home Affordable Unemployment Program.

According to the latest information released in the Obama Administration’s August Housing Scorecard, Wells Fargo had the second highest amount of trial modifications in the month of July, with only Bank of America having more.

Year-to-date, among the top ten mortgage servicers in the country, Wells Fargo’s loan modification efforts under HAMP were only surpassed by Bank of America and just slightly behind J.P. Morgan Chase.

Tags: Wells Fargo, trial modification, completed modifications, loan modifications, HAMP, borrowers, Housing Scorecard

Source:
Wells Fargo