The overall volume of loan modifications under the government’s program waned last month. But one mortgage servicer’s recent decision to move thousands of loan originators into loan modifications is starting to pay off.
Servicers completed 16,982 permanent modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program during December, according to data from the Department of the Treasury.
Volume was 20 percent lower than in November and was down by more than half from December 2009.
Since the first HAMP modification was reported in November 2010, servicers have completed 521,630 permanent HAMPs.
Bank of America, N.A., outperformed the competition, closing 6,484 HAMPs in December versus 4,420 the month before. Since the beginning of the program, BofA has processed 90,243 permanent modifications under the government program.
BofA’s monthly improvement, the best of any servicer, came as it moved 2,500 of its mortgage originators into loan modifications during December.
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., followed with 1,686 HAMPs in December versus 3,887 in November. Wells’ program-to-date volume was 70,135 permanent modifications.
The third biggest HAMP producer was American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc., where HAMP production declined to 1,024 from 1,218, followed by Select Mortgage Portfolio, which pushed activity to 730 modifications from 428.
No. 5 was OneWest Bank, which lifted modifications to 641 from 461.
J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., saw its program-to-date total diminish by 1,281 during December.
It was even worse at CitiMortgage Inc., which had a negative 10,110 HAMPs in December.
