CITIGROUP WILL HELP AT-RISK HOMEOWNERS

NEW YORK (Associated Press) – A little over a week after JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced plans to help keep at-risk borrowers in their homes, another major bank is stepping up its efforts to help struggling homeowners.
Citigroup Inc. announced yesterday that it will not initiate a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower if it is the borrower's principal residence, the homeowner is working in good faith with Citigroup, and the homeowner has sufficient income to make affordable mortgage payments.
Over the next six months, Citigroup will reach out to 500,000 homeowners deemed as potentially needing assistance to keep up with their payments. This represents about one-third of all the mortgages that Citigroup owns.
Citigroup plans to devote a team of 600 salespeople to assist the targeted borrowers by adjusting their rates, reducing principal, or increasing the term of the loan.More than four million American homeowners with a mortgage were at least one payment behind on their loans at the end of June, and 500,000 had started the foreclosure process, according to the most recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.