Foreclosure Pause

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson issued a statement today saying that all members of the so-called Hope-Now Alliance have agreed to a moratorium on foreclosures for 30 days. The list of financial institutions that are part of Hope-Now is significant, as Paulson indicated in his statement, shown below. This could help to limit some of the self-feeding effects of the current mortgage problem:

"I am impressed with the HOPE NOW Alliance's swift adoption of Project Lifeline. Just last week we saw six servicers take the lead and agree to this initiative. Now that all HOPE NOW members have signed on, more than 90% of the subprime servicing market and nearly 70% of the entire mortgage-servicing market is committed to this coordinated method of reaching more homeowners."

Members of Hope-Now (from the Hope-Now website):

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