I just finished reading an article about Bank of America offering a “special” plan to partially forgive debts of underwater homeowners.  Why are they doing this?  Because they messed up. According to a Bank of America credit loss mititgation exec, they have failed to handle customers at the “standards Bank of America is accustomed to.”

That statement actually frightens me a little. Those of us in the short sale industry, prior to Equator and even now, know that Bank of America customer service is not pie in the sky.

According to reports, Bank of America has the lowest rate of successful permanent loan modifications under HAMP of the four largest banks.  [Four largest banks:  JPMorgan Chase @ 16%, Citibank @ 18%, and Wells Fargo @ 20%]

Bank of America keeps the same PR response of: we are training more people and making systems better….like use of the new Equator system for short sales.

According to the same exec – they are still receiving “more customer complaints than… are acceptable”.

The new program from BAC, their National Homeownership Retention Program, will help reduce the monthly mortgage payment to 31% of their monthly income for HAMP-eligible homeowners by first forbearing principal and ultimately forgiving it they stay current on payments.  The bank is targeting over 43,000 borrowers who they say are already eligible for their new program.

For those of us still pounding and pushing our short sales through BAC – keep it up!