identified that, quote, there have been countless published reports of hamp participants who end up worse off for having engaged in a futile effort to obtain sustainable relief that the program promised. failed modifications often leave borrowers with more principal outstanding on their loans, less on equity, depleted savings and worse credit scores, unquote. using provocative language that we have heard supporting your actions in the foreclosure crisis, i guess you could say that then-secretary, treasury secretary geithner was a, quote, predator loan modifier, unquote, using that type of logic. now, mr. mnuchin, did one west have any interplay with the obama administration s program, and was that program successful in preventing foreclosures on struggling american homeowners,
or could more have been done by the administration? senator, thank you very much for that question. that is a very important issue. when we did the indy mac deal with the fdic, we committed to the fdic that we would continue the fdic loan modification program. it was after that that the obama administration came up with hamp. and we had no obligation to do hamp. we could have continued to do fdic loan modifications. but we felt it was the appropriate thing to voluntary go into the u.s. treasury hamp program as were other major banks. so we voluntarily went into that program. the hamp loan modification program was a very redescriptive program, including us having to follow net present valuations to see which was better, either foreclosing on a home or
lending, unquote, during the housing crisis. an investor group that you headed folder by reformed indy mac, a failed institution, responsible for many low and no-doc mortgage loans into a viable constitutiinstitution ca west, which you ve described here, which offered loan modifications above and beyond what other institutions were doing to more than 100,000 borrowers, at least that s the way it looks to me. meanwhile, during all of the foreclosure turmoil, obama administration officials set up a national loan modification program called hamp. many members of congress from both sides of the aisle and others have repeatedly fallen far short of its goals and it had significant design flaws. in testimony before congress, the special inspector general