Nearly two months after announcing its decision to pioneer free reemployment assistance to homeowners who defaulted on their mortgage due to job loss, Fifth Third Bancorp is on a mission to convince peers to join in.
Instead of renewing an exclusivity clause with NextJob, the service provider, Fifth Third has agreed to make NextJob’s Homeowner Reemployment program available to all financial institutions.
According to Kevin Kabat, chief executive officer of Fifth Third Bank, “The time has come for the banking industry” to embrace the Homeowner Reemployment program.
In early February the bank signed a multiyear contract with NextJob of Bend, Ore., to offer unemployed homeowners job search assistance, including one-on-one dedicated coaching, weekly webinars and online job search access fully paid for by Fifth Third Bank after the 2012 pilot program helped nearly 40% of the participants secure full-time jobs within six months.
The move aims to ensure that any bank interested in offering the program to its customers has the option to do so immediately.
As the first bank to provide this type of assistance to its distressed borrowers, Kabat stated in a company release, “Fifth Third is willing to share lessons learned and answer questions” to executives from the banks that plan to implement the program.
The new contract agreement enables NextJob to extend the program to unemployed mortgage borrowers at other banks, said CEO of NextJob John Courtney, and given that interest from other financial institutions is growing Fifth Third Bank’s decision to waive their exclusivity provision will ultimately help more homeowners find jobs.
