Bank of America permanent HAMP mods drop 18.6% in August

Bank of America converted 3,559 trial mods into permanent status through the Home Affordable Modification Program in August, down 18.6% from the 4,300 done July and less than half the amount done in June. BofA has totaled 79,859 permanent HAMP mods through August since the program launched in March 2009. It has modified more than 680,000 through HAMP and its own programs since January 2008. The Treasury Department launched HAMP in March 2009 to provide servicers an incentive to modify the mortgage. Those servicers have completed 434,716 through July. “Our HAMP results in recent months show a reduced number of customers starting new trial modifications, due mainly to the implementation of a full documentation requirement,” said Rebecca Mairone, default servicing executive of Bank of America Home Loans. “As a result, we are seeing a smaller increase in completed HAMP modifications month-over-month at this time.” In November 2009, BofA reported just 98 permanent modifications after more than nine months in the program. Since then, both BofA and the Treasury have adjusted guidelines to collect modification documents before putting the homeowner into a trial modification. The entire August HAMP report is scheduled for released later this week. Write to Jon Prior.