Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) issued a press release on Thursday detailing how it continues to reduce the number of home foreclosures throughout the nation with the use of the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)
Through the first eleven months of 2009, Wells Fargo said it has put in place 422,000 trial and completed modifications. Nearly 100,000 of those were part of the HAMP, the bank said.
“From the beginning, our goal has been to work with our customers to avoid foreclosures wherever possible while balancing the interests of the 92 percent of our customers who continue to stay current in their payments,” said Mike Heid, co-president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, in the press release.
“When a viable alternative exists, there is no incentive for us to go to foreclosure sale – it doesn’t benefit us, our customers, communities, our shareholders, or our investors. We are using every means at our disposal to move modifications forward including extending the trial period for HAMP customers who are making their reduced payments, but have yet to submit their documents,” added Heid.
Breaking down some of its progress thus far, Wells Fargo said of the near 100,000 HAMP trial modifications in place, 44,000 of them have made all three trial payments as of the end of November. Of that group, 40 percent either already have or are ready to make the final modifications.
Included in those figures are the 3,537 modifications that were already completed and reported by the government when they last released an update on the HAMP.
In 2009, Wells Fargo has taken several steps to increase its responsiveness to home retention efforts. These actions include adding roughly 15,000 U.S. based employees, 7,600 of which were added in 2009.
