U.S. Government, Banks Near a Plan to Freeze Subprime Rates

November 30th, 2007

This Wall Street Journal front page story reads like news from some banana republic! You’ve got millions of slobs who took out toxic waste, impossible to pay back loans and the largest banks in the land engaged in a Mexican standoff.

Who’s going to pay for all those subprime mortgage lotto winners?

U.S. Dollar holders, that’s who.

And think of the message that this will send to prudent, responsible home buyers who took fixed rate loans! Are they going to hit the mortgage lotto, too? Or do they just get to watch their savings go up in smoke to save the large banks?

Holy crap.

Via: Wall Street Journal:

The Bush administration and major financial institutions are close to agreeing on a plan that would temporarily freeze interest rates on certain troubled subprime home loans, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

An accord could reassure investors and strapped homeowners, both of whom are anxious as interest rates on more than two million adjustable mortgages are scheduled to jump over the next two years. It could also give a boost to the Bush administration, which is facing criticism for inaction amid the recent housing turmoil.

The plan is being negotiated between regulators including the Treasury Department and a coalition of mortgage-related companies including Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Washington Mutual Inc. and Countrywide Financial Corp. People familiar with the talks say the individual members have agreed to follow any agreement reached by the coalition, which is called the Hope Now Alliance.

Details of the plan, which could be announced as early as next week, are still being worked out. In general, the government and the coalition have largely agreed to extend the lower introductory rate on home loans for certain borrowers who will have trouble making payments once their mortgages increase.

Many subprime loans carry a low “teaser” interest rate for the first two or three years, then reset to a higher rate for the remainder of the term, which is typically 30 years in total. In a typical case, the rate would rise to around 9.5% to 11% from 7% or 8%. That would boost an average borrower’s payment by several hundred dollars a month.

Exactly which borrowers will qualify for the freeze and how long the freeze would last are yet to be determined. Under one scenario, the freeze could run as long as seven years. The parties are developing standard criteria that would determine eligibility. The criteria should be finalized by the end of year.

Mortgage servicers — the companies that collect loan payments — are a key part of the coalition, because they are the companies that deal directly with borrowers. Often the servicer is different from the company that originally made the loan. Citigroup and Countrywide are among the nation’s biggest mortgage servicers. The mortgage servicers in the coalition represent 84% of the overall subprime market. The coalition also includes lenders, investors and mortgage counselors.

The Bush administration has been looking for ways to stem the fallout from the mortgage crisis. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson helped assemble the coalition so that government officials could have a single counterpart with which to discuss terms of a plan.

While the government can’t force the industry to modify loans, Mr. Paulson and other administration officials have been using moral suasion to push for workouts, telling the companies it is in their interest to avoid foreclosure since most parties can lose money when that happens. A similar plan to freeze interest rates temporarily was recently announced by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and four major loan servicers, including Countrywide.

Among the holdouts have been investors, who typically hold securities backed by mortgages. If interest rates are frozen, they would lose the potential benefit of higher payments. But investors have cautiously moved toward cooperation, likely on the grounds that it’s better to get some interest than none at all.

Research Credit: PD

Posted in Economy | Top Of Page

3 Responses to “U.S. Government, Banks Near a Plan to Freeze Subprime Rates”

  1. Loveandlight says:

    I suppose at this point, it’s a matter of “pick your poison”.

  2. truename says:

    Actually, the people with long term fixed rate loans are aren’t in a bad position either, right? As debtors they benefit from dollar depreciation the same way Uncle Sam will: they can pay back their debt with future funny money currency.

    The people hurt the most are people who saved money for a long time, have no debt, didn’t invest their money in speculative bubble investments during the good times, and hold lots of dollar assets. In other words, prudent (if naive) savers/investors in the US.

    So yeah, it’s pretty much a banana republic situation.

  3. tazzy531 says:

    truename Says:
    December 2nd, 2007 at 6:55 am
    Actually, the people with long term fixed rate loans are aren’t in a bad position either, right? As debtors they benefit from dollar depreciation the same way Uncle Sam will: they can pay back their debt with future funny money currency.

    The problem is they also earn funny money too.

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