More than a thousand new employees have been hired by CitiMortgage this year to deal with a big jump in borrower calls.
The additions were made to the O’Fallon, Mo.-based servicer’s loss mitigation staff, parent Citigroup announced today.
Since the beginning of this year, 1,400 loss mitigation employees have been hired.
Citi said more than 4,000 employees have received training for the Home Affordable Modification program.
“Rapidly escalating and unprecedented volumes of customer calls led Citi to quickly expand its response capabilities during recent months,” the statement said. “Call center capabilities were increased significantly and the company has solicited over 140,000 delinquent borrowers beginning in April.”
Citi, which claims to be the fourth-largest U.S. residential servicer, said it prevented 108,000 foreclosures on $16 billion in loans during the second quarter — nearly 30 percent more than in the first quarter. From the time it recently joined the program, more than 40,000 HAMP offers have been made by the company.
Since 2007, 625,000 foreclosures on $67 billion in mortgages have reportedly been prevented by Citi.
