Rochester Business Journal

A report issued Thursday by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman puts mortgage relief seen by New York homeowners from the state’s share of a $25 billion national settlement at $1.8 billion.

Attorneys general of 49 states, including New York, reached the settlement with five major banks last year.

Schneiderman’s report catalogs amounts granted to New York homeowners from the program’s Mar. 1, 2012 kickoff to Dec. 31 at:

• Loan forgiveness to 3,841borrowers either completed or in progress on first-mortgage principal totaling $472.1 million;
• Principal reduction or forgiveness for 9,017 borrowers’ on $760.6 million worth second mortgage loans; 
• Refinances providing an average 2.6 percent interest rate cut to 818 borrowers; and
• Relief to a total of 21,535 borrowers.

Among the three loan servicers most active in New York, Bank of America Corp. and JP Morgan Chase & Co. turned in satisfactory results, Schneiderman said, providing a combined total of principal reductions on 3,151 New York homeowners’ first mortgages.  

Despite having a New York distressed loan portfolio similar to that of Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo & Co. has processed principal reductions for only 315 N.Y. borrowers and would come under his scrutiny, the attorney general added.  
 
“We expect Wells Fargo to increase their consumer relief activity for struggling New Yorkers,” Schneiderman said.

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