FDIC Halts IndyMac Mortgage Foreclosures; Aggressive Pursuit Of Loan Modification Strategies To Follow, Says Agency Chairman

In Washington, D.C., Reuters reports:

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has temporarily halted any foreclosures on the $15 billion of bank-owned mortgage loans found in IndyMac's portfolio, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said on Monday. Bair has scolded mortgage lenders for being too slow to help distressed borrowers restructure their home loans. "Modified loans will be worth more than foreclosed loans," she said in an interview on CNBC television. IndyMac, which the FDIC took over after it failed on Friday, had a $200 billion mortgage servicing portfolio.

For more, see FDIC halts foreclosure on IndyMac mortgages.

See also, The Wall Street Journal: IndyMac Reopens, Halts Foreclosures on Its Loans:

• [F]ederal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair, who has been one of the most outspoken officials calling for banks to ease up on struggling homeowners, said that the agency is "really focused" on keeping borrowers in their homes for both their sakes and to maximize IndyMac's value for taxpayers. "We will very aggressively pursue loan-modification strategies for unaffordable loans to make them affordable on a long-term, sustainable basis," Ms. Bair said in an interview Monday.