Citigroup Bailout May Assist More Homeowners

The government's rescue package for struggling banking behemoth Citigroup won't just shore up the firm's balance sheet -- it could also help more Americans avoid foreclosure.

The rescue package, which includes $306 billion in loan and securities guarantees for the bank, requires the firm to implement the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's mortgage modification program.

The FDIC's program is currently in place at IndyMac Bank in California, a failing institution that the FDIC took over earlier this year. The agency's IndyMac mortgage modification program targeted 40,000 homeowners and, as of earlier this month, had helped more than 5,000 homeowners reduce their monthly payments by an average of more than $380, FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair told a Congressional committee last week.

Frank Lomba, of Margate, Fla., a truck driver who fell a month behind on his Citi mortgage payments after losing his job, said that the FDIC requirement gives him hope.

"They would be forced to help people rather than just letting them go into foreclosure, rather than take my house and resell it and leave me out on the street," he said.

It is unclear whether the FDIC's plans for Citi would differ substantially from existing Citigroup homeowner help programs, but Guy Cecala, publisher of the trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance, said that, at the very least, the FDIC's involvement will ensure that Citi makes good on its intentions to modify loans.

"The FDIC agreement is actually built into (Citigroup) getting bailed out and has definitely more teeth in it," he said. "They can't turn around tomorrow and say, 'We don't want to do it anymore.'"

Citigroup owns roughly 1.5 million home loans and services another 5 million mortgages.

Through its subsidiary CitiMortgage, the firm already has at least two programs in place to assist homeowners in trouble -- a new program targeting some 500,000 homeowners who are at risk for falling behind on their mortgage payments, and another intended to help homeowners who are already delinquent on their loans. The latter, Citi officials say, was already modeled on the FDIC's IndyMac plan.