CitiMortgage Makes $200B AH Pledge

Citigroup's residential mortgage lending unit, CitiMortgage, has pledged to provide up to $200 billion in mortgage financing to low- and moderate-income, minority, and "underserved" families through 2010, touting the commitment as the largest of its kind.Citigroup's announcement at the new company headquarters building in New York followed an earlier, smaller-scale CitiMortgage commitment to provide $3 billion of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income borrowers by the end of the decade in partnership with the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America. The earlier agreement derived from a market-tested partnership aiming to assist low-income, underserved borrowers who graduate from NACA's financial education programs. Carl Levinson, CitiMortgage's chairman and chief executive officer, said the lender will count on old and new partnerships as well as special programs such as "Opportunities Within Neighborhoods" (which tie financial resources with homeownership education) to meet the new commitment.