Project Lifeline: Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide, JP Morgan, Washington Mutual & Wells Fargo united to create Project Lifeline program to help the Mortgage payment crisis.
With the credit crunch hitting the U.S. hard, a collection of banks are getting together in “Project Lifeline” with the aim of helping US homeowners. US house prices are getting depressed thanks to unsold homes and six major US banks are about to announce their plans to offer help to US homeowners with their mortgages. The BBC has said the banks are “Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, JP Morgan Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo”.
The Housing Department and US Treasury are expected to announce their plans today, which will include homeowners getting 30 days extra to renegotiate their mortgage payments.
Project Lifeline is another project on top of the existing “Hope Now” plan that the six banks are already involved in. Project Lifeline is designed to create affordable deals that will help homeowners delay foreclosures and improve payment situation. According To Boston Herald Project Lifeline expands on a program called “Hope Now,” which President Bush and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled in December. Under Hope Now, major lenders agreed to voluntarily “freeze” low-cost “teaser” rates on some subprime adjustable-rate mortgages for five extra years. However, critics charge that the Hope Now plan does little for some 1 million borrowers facing imminent home loss. That’s because the program only covers people no more than 60 days behind on their loans. But Project Lifeline aims to help people who are further behind on mortgages
