It took a lawsuit for Bank of America to swing into action but is too little too late?? All the big announcements in the media and people getting excited that their bank is finally going to help but out of the millions of troubled loans on their file, they are going to help only 45,000 homeowners... are you kidding me?? Pulling the wool over the eyes is a forte with banks in our country.

Bank of America is introducing enhancements to its 2008 National Homeowership retention Program.Supposedly,innovative program enhancements, such as “earned principal forgiveness”, apparently address "the most critical concerns of their underwater, distressed customers." The program enhancements are designed to increase the acceptance rate of modification offers and the long term sustainability of these solutions, balancing the needs of customers and the interests of mortgage investors.

Here are the requirements:

* For most AT RISK borrowers.
* Must be 60 days late.
* Focus on sub-prime, pay option loans.
* Loans must be at least have a 120% LTV. They have to be at least 20% upside down.
* Earn over 5 years. Over 5 years the negative equity will be ‘forgiven’
* BoA has 1,000,000 delinquent loans…and this program may ‘help’ 45,000

Excerpts from a Bank Of America release:
Bank of America developed and launched the NHRP in 2008, in cooperation with state attorneys general, to provide assistance to Countrywide borrowers who financed their home with certain subprime and Pay-Option adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs).

Bank of America removed these from the Countrywide product line upon acquiring Countrywide in July 2008. These new components of the agreement apply to certain NHRP-eligible loans that also meet the basic qualifications for the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

They include:
• A first look at principal reductions in calculating an affordable payment through an earned principal forgiveness approach to severely underwater loans
• Principal forgiveness through a reduction of negative-amortization on certain Pay-Option ARMs
• Conversion of certain Pay-Option ARMs to fully amortizing loans prior to a recast
• Addition of certain prime 2-year hybrid ARMs as eligible for the NHRP mortgage modification programs
• Inclusion of Countrywide mortgages originated on or before January 1, 2009, as eligible for modifications under the terms of the NHRP
• A six-month extension of the term of the NHRP program to December 31, 2012

My question to Bank of America is on their criteria for calculations. We all know very well how wonderfully the HAMP program worked with calculations that actually turned up with higher payments for borrowers looking for a loan mod. If here is going to be a conversion from Pay Option Arms to fully amortized, the payments are bound to ocme in higher. Include impounds and we have an unaffordable payment. Then what??

The program will assist people who are atleast 60 days late. Is this another call to homeowners to get delinquent on their loans for someone to give them an ear? What about the homeowners who are current on their payments but barely so- this is the green light for them to stop making payments. I need to get more specifics rather than the vague outline before I can go all out to talk about my thoughts. In what little I have learned, this is another drama in the sequence of many to make a fool of people. if you really want to help BofA, then take a knife and slash across the principal for all customers, especially the ones who were sold these risky products. Oh and while you are at it, tell me your action plan for all the mortgage brokers who sold these products to unsuspecting consumers and made hefty rebates from you.