Backlash against banks growing over mortgage modifications

Said Matsui, "The economy will not come back the way it can until we take care of these foreclosures, and this is the way to do it. There are no excuses at this time, and that's why the letter went out."

Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department likewise issued a so-called "name and shame" list of lender performances. The report revealed that banking giants like Bank of America had modified only 4 percent of its loans that qualified for President Barack Obama's Making Home Affordable Program. (That program provides financial incentives to lenders to lower interest rates or stretch out loan payment times to make payments more affordable to borrowers.) The government said Wells Fargo had modified just 6 percent of its eligible loans.

Banking officials are quick to acknowledge they can do better. But they also contend that they are dealing with a crisis that keeps growing beyond efforts to staff for it.

"Unfortunately, our member banks, as committed as they are to working with their customers, still haven't found a big enough magic wand to wave over this thing," said Rod Brown, president and chief executive officer of the California Bankers Association. Brown noted that Wells Fargo hired 4,000 staffers in the first half of 2009 to deal with mortgages. He also cited U.S. Senate testimony by Bank of America that it handles 1.8 million calls a month about residential foreclosure issues.

In a statement last month, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Co-President Mike Heid acknowledged frustration. He said, "While the majority of our customers who request help are getting through to us and receiving the help they need, we know we've fallen short of our customer service goals in some cases."

Banks, meanwhile, are also dogged by a widespread and often-mistaken perception that the purpose of so-called bailout funds – hundreds of billions of dollars in the past year – was specifically to help banks modify mortgages.

While the Obama administration budgeted $75 billion this year to help prod loan modifications, the much larger sums were designed to "better equip banks to make loans to help them get this economy out of the downturn," said Brown. "It was also to help banks, strong banks, to give them more capital, and to work with the regulatory entities to acquire weaker or failing banks." In other words, to prop up a banking sector reeling from losses as more Americans defaulted on residential mortgages, credit cards and commercial real estate.

"Those dollars had nothing to do with residential mortgages. They weren't directed to banks for that purpose," Brown said. He and others note that banks are paying back billions of dollars, with interest, to the government.

In the short run, that doesn't spell relief for James and Sandi Seeley. Their Aug. 19 letter from Wells Fargo said the investor who owns their loan balked at modifying it. The big bank suggested the Seeleys consider a short sale – in which the bank would accept less than it's owed to avoid foreclosing. The Egans received the same option from a Wells Fargo subsidiary.

Neither couple wants to leave their houses. Both said they're reapplying for modifications. Said Egan, in a plea to banks, "I don't want you to bail me out. I don't want you to make my payment for me. Can you just play ball?"