Bush plan helps some borrowers, not all

By prodding the mortgage industry to help troubled borrowers, the Bush administration's response to the housing crisis has reshuffled the likely winners and losers — except no one can agree on who they are.

The mortgage industry and government officials who took part in crafting the plan are united in saying it's the borrowers who benefit. Meanwhile, consumer groups and Democrats say it's industry that was really bailed out.

If fully implemented, some mortgage lenders and a portion of borrowers with poor credit could see their financial situations stabilized, while investors around the world who bought securities backed by U.S. mortgage loans could see lower profits.

Many, though, were quick to say that the plan helps businesses more than the 1.2 million homeowners it is supposed to aid.

"It's more realistic to say the plan is saving American lenders" than to say it is saving homeowners, said Brian Brady, a managing director at San Diego-based mortgage banking firm World Wide Credit Corp.

Major lenders and industry groups praised the plan. Mike Heid, co-president of Wells Fargo & Co.'s mortgage division said in a statement that the plan "buys time for the housing market to stabilize so that refinancing options again become available to these consumers." And Rick Simon, a spokesman for Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's No. 1 home lender, said the effort was positive for the company, borrowers and neighborhoods.

Reacting to the news, Wall Street rallied Thursday, with all three major indexes rising, as investors bet that companies hurt by the housing crisis will benefit from the Bush administration plan and from another interest rate cut next week.

That reaction from investors came despite a Mortgage Bankers Association report that home foreclosures shot up to an all-time high in the third quarter.

President Bush, in announcing the plan to freeze interest rates for five years for homeowners whose mortgages are scheduled to rise in the coming months, maintained that the plan, negotiated with industry groups, should not be seen as a government solution to the mortgage crisis. Instead, he called it "a sensible response to a serious challenge."

But outside Washington, skepticism was rampant. "I've been doing this for 30 years and haven't seen the government do anything that's ever worked," said longtime mortgage industry executive William Dallas, who founded subprime lenders First Franklin Financial and Ownit Mortgage Solutions.

Plus, some analysts say that loan servicing companies, which collect and distribute payments to investors in mortgage loans, are being intensely pressured to make changes that don't benefit the long-term financial goals of the investors whose best interests they are bound to represent.

"The clearest winner is likely to be the legal profession," said David Resler, chief economist with Nomura Securities.

Concerned that a flood of lawsuits would stop loan modification efforts, Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., has introduced a bill that would give loan servicers a six-month shield from lawsuits if they make modifications.

Whether the servicers are protected or not may be moot, though.

Russell Martin, a residential mortgage adviser and author of SmartMortgageAdvice.com, said the plan will help a few customers, but not a majority. It specifically excludes loans made to real estate speculators and those in which borrowers did not prove their incomes.

"It's a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound," Martin said.

Federal banking regulators who played a key role in developing the plan argue that investors in mortgage-backed securities will benefit to the degree that foreclosures are avoided. Broad-based loan modification efforts "are often likely to lead to better aggregate investor returns than foreclosures," Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner said in testimony prepared for a House hearing Thursday.

Putting the interests of investors aside, Democrats and consumer advocates question whether enough borrowers will be helped. They say the plan doesn't do anything for borrowers whose loans reset at higher rates already, or for those with other kinds of risky loans. Some also question whether the five-year duration of the plan will be long enough for many borrowers to benefit.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said that by making the plan available only to borrowers with lower credit scores, it sends the message to the public that maintaining good credit is unimportant.

"It goes counter to what we've been telling people: Be careful about your debt," Frank said at a House hearing.

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AP Business Writers Stephen Bernard and J.W. Elphinstone in New York and Alex Veiga in Los Angeles contributed to this report.