NEW YORK — JPMorgan Chase & Co. disclosed Thursday that it prevented 250,000 home foreclosures since it started to actively modify mortgages in early 2007.
The number is part of a presentation the bank's retail banking chief, Charles Scharf, is scheduled to give at a conference sponsored by the BancAnalysts Association of Boston.
Like many banks, JPMorgan Chase started last year to approach customers with adjustable-rate mortgages ahead of the date their interest rates would reset and modified or refinanced when customers might not be able to pay the new, higher rate. But delinquencies continued to rise, even among prime borrowers.
Scharf's presentation reiterates that prime mortgage losses could reach $300 million in early 2009, a number Chief Financial Officer Michael Cavanagh disclosed during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call last month.
On Friday, JPMorgan Chase said it expanded its loan modification program following the acquisition of Washington Mutual Inc., the Seattle thrift that collapsed under the weight of souring mortgages. The enhanced program will seek to help an additional 400,000 families struggling with mortgage payments.
