Obama to Push Lenders to Reduce More Mortgage Payments

The Obama administration will announce it will pressure mortgage companies to reduce payments for more troubled homeowners, the New York Times reported Saturday on its Web site for its Sunday edition.

"The banks are not doing a good enough job," Michael S. Barr, Treasury's assistant secretary for financial institutions, told the Times. "Some of the firms ought to be embarrassed, and they will be."

Barr said the government would try to use shame as a corrective, publicly naming those institutions that move too slowly to permanently lower mortgage payments, the Times reported.