I have many friends

I have many friends and clients who continue to tell me the horror stories of trying to work with there lender or servicer, on trying to get there loan modification , accepted. H ave you ever heard how much paper work they are requiring ,over and above say your original loan application? One client said they not only wanted the standard hardship letter, proof of income , [proof of car insurance , proof , of road hazard insurance ,proof of his signed 8th grade SAT test , and proof of his last scorecard at the golfcourse . this guys have set us up for failure , they reap billions out of not completing the modification , in order to keep from having to book the losses and face being shut down by the banking committee s, there are 375,000 HAMP trials that are scheduled to convert to permanent modifications by the end of the year, and their upcoming progress report will show just how close participating servicers are to reaching that number. Last week, the administration announced a new push to coerce servicers into moving more trial mods to "permanent" status, threatening to impose fines, withhold incentive payments, and resort to public humiliation of those companies that don't pick up the pace. But servicers say the problem is not how swiftly they can process the conversions, but getting borrowers to submit the additional documentation required. Molly Sheehan, SVP of housing policy for JPMorgan Chase's home lending division, told the House committee that 29 percent of its borrowers in trial periods do not make their required payments, making them ineligible for a permanent modification. Another 51 percent who've successfully made their trial payments do not submit all the required documentation or turn in paperwork with errors. That leaves only 20 percent who correctly submit all the necessary documents and are eligible for permanent status. "The focus of our immediate attention is finding ways to assist the 51 borrowers out of 100 that are missing some or all of the documentation required under HAMP or where the documents are incomplete, not current enough, or otherwise not acceptable under the HAMP rules," Sheehan said. Bank of America's credit loss mitigation strategies executive, Jack Shakett, told lawmakers that approximately 65,000 homeowners BofA has extended HAMP trials to have made their restructured payments on time and have modifications that are set to expire by the end of the year. Of those, about 50,000 have either failed to submit all the documentation or have submitted paperwork with discrepancies, he said. "For the 15,000 customers who have provided all required information, we are experiencing a high conversion rate, with denials predominantly resulting from either income differences from what was stated by the borrower at the time of trial modification or discovery that the property is no longer owner-occupied," Shakett testified. Herb Allison, assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability, validated the lenders' positions. In testimony before the House committee later that day, he said so far, less than one in three borrowers in the trial modification phase have turned in their paperwork to qualify for a permanent loan modification so far. Representatives from both sides of the aisle stood unified in their dissatisfaction with HAMP's progress. One Republican called the program outright, "an abject failure." "All of these banks have got to do better," said Rep. Al Green (D-Texas). "If you don't do better at some point, you're going to force Congress to take drastic action," he warned the bankers testifying. "We have a great frustration at the failure of the combined efforts of the federal government to make a substantial impact on the foreclosure issue," said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, (D-Massachusetts). "No one can think we have done a satisfactory job." House Democrats are even considering more legislation to provide additional assistance to struggling homeowners. Frank says he plans to revive one of his earlier proposals that would create a federal lending program to subsidize unemployed homeowners' mortgage payments until they get back on their feet. He wants to tack it on to the broader financial reform package currently under consideration by the House. The controversial bankruptcy cramdown has surfaced again as well, which would let judges restructure mortgages with or without concurrence from the lender. The cramdown measure stalled in Congress earlier this year, but John Conyers (D-Michigan) is reportedly readying a bankruptcy cramdown amendment, which Frank has said he'll support including in the larger reform legislation.