Bank of America (BAC) approved 30,000 mortgage customers for principal reductions on first-lien mortgages with a total value of $4.75 billion as part of its consumer-relief mandate under the national mortgage servicing settlement program.
Bank of America executives participated on a teleconferenced update to the settlement.
They said that, through September, BofA completed or approved $15.8 billion in mortgage debt relief for 164,000 homeowners.
The progress report comes the same day that four other banks are expected to release their compliance updates with the national mortgage servicing settlement. The $20 bilion-plus settlement, which was reached between the big banks, state attorneys general and the federal government, outlines consumer-relief mandates and servicing requirements for the nation’s largest mortgage servicers.
BofA said in addition to $4.75 billion in principal reductions, the company has extended $230 million in pre-settlement forebearance.
And to date, 45,000 homeowners with mortgages serviced or owned by BofA have received $2.5 billion in relief through programs offering extinguishment of home equity loans and lines of credit.
Another 62,000 BofA customers were greenlighted for short-sales or deeds-in-lieu of foreclosure offering another $7.4 billion in relief on unpaid principal balances.
By Oct. 31, 23,000 homeowners had been offered assistance via interest rate reductions, with most of that activity occurring in just the past month.
Through September, about 1,000 rate reductions were completed with interest-rate aid totaling $250 million in unpaid principal balances.
BofA notes that when evaluating the gross amount of forgiveness activity, the relief is not always calculated dollar-for-dollar, so the aid amount is often higher than what is credited.
