State Officials Eye B&C Loan-Mod Data

Subprime servicers are starting to provide data on their loan modification efforts to a working group of state attorneys general and banking regulators, according to New York Banking Superintendent Richard Neiman. The multistate working group, headed by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, began working with subprime servicers last summer to make sure distressed homeowners are getting the assistance they need to avoid foreclosure. However, Mr. Miller's group has been shut out of the loan modification efforts led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the Hope Now alliance of servicers. "I found it curious and disappointing that the Treasury's Hope Now alliance did not include a state government representative," Mr. Neiman told the Exchequer Club. "This omission could undermine the group's effectiveness, because it is missing the perspective from an important regulatory partner, which is the sole supervisor for a significant portion of the mortgage industry."