Citigroup to Suspend Home Foreclosures in Oil-Spill Area

Citigroup Inc., the recipient of a $45 billion taxpayer bailout, will suspend foreclosures in coastal areas hit by the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The three-month halt starts tomorrow and will apply to loans owned by the bank’s mortgage unit, not debt that Citigroup services for other lenders or investors, the company said today in an e-mailed statement. Homeowners within about 25 miles of the coast will be covered and evictions will be halted if properties have already been seized.

“We aim to ease the burden on residents of the Gulf states so they can concentrate on the most urgent matters facing them,” Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, 53, said in the statement. “We will continue to explore ways to help people avoid foreclosure so they and their families can remain in their homes and have one less thing to worry about.”

Fannie Mae, the government-supported mortgage company, today reminded the companies that manage its loans that they can immediately suspend or reduce payments for borrowers for at least three months.

Citigroup’s move will protect about 1,200 homeowners, according to Sanjiv Das, head of the New York-based bank’s CitiMortgage unit. The bank has had “very encouraging” discussions with companies for which it services home loans and may expand the moratorium to their borrowers, he said.

Fannie, Freddie

“We don’t know what the repercussions of the oil spill are going to be,” Das said in a telephone interview today. “But we thought it was important for our borrowers at this time of distress to get their financial bearing.”

Freddie Mac, which along with Fannie Mae owns or guarantees more than half of U.S. home loans, hasn’t announced special directions to its servicers for borrowers in the area, as it did after 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The McLean, Virginia-based company’s guidelines allows them to provide relief where appropriate, according to spokesman Brad German.

Washington-based Fannie Mae’s “policy is in place to support those who are experiencing a disaster-related hardship through no fault of their own and are acting in good faith to meet their mortgage obligation,” CEO Michael J. Williams said in an e-mailed statement.

“At this point,” Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank and largest mortgage servicer, “is not experiencing a groundswell of customer inquiries regarding hardships resulting from the Gulf oil spill,” Rick Simon, a spokesman, said in an e-mail. It does anticipate it “will create significant hardship for many homeowners in the coming weeks and months.”

‘Suitable Assistance’

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank is “working to develop suitable assistance plans and programs to meet” individuals’ needs “within servicing guidelines,” such as the typically used “initial 90-day forbearance of payments, with case-by-case consideration of extensions in situations, such as the hurricanes, that create longer term hardships,” Simon said.

While JPMorgan Chase & Co. doesn’t have a formal program for homeowners in the area, the New York-based bank will work with borrowers on a case-by-case basis, spokeswoman Christine Holevas said.

“We are urging customers in the Gulf region to give us a call, and we will work out a solution for them that will give them relief,” Holevas said. “We are very cognizant that people are struggling and want to help.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jody Shenn in New York at jshenn@bloomberg.net

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