AG To Banks: Help Stressed Homeowners
Addressing members of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce this morning, Attorney General Martha Coakley urged banks to assist homeowners who are in trouble with their mortgage loans when feasible, instead of pushing them into foreclosure.
"If it makes more sense to modify a loan, (banks) should do that," she said during an address at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton.
Coakley's plea came a day after the announcement that a federal court approved a $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement between U.S. and state officials and the nation's five largest mortgage servicers regarding fraudulent documentation by the financial institutions.
The agreement will provide about $318 million in assistance for Massachusetts borrowers, including $14.6 million in cash payments, $257 million in mortgage relief and a $44.5 million payment to the commonwealth to assist homeowners.
Coakley also said her office is looking closely at high energy costs. She said that when companies consider moving into Massachusetts or expanding from within, they do a cost analysis of doing business here and conclude that energy costs are too high.
The average electric rate in Massachusetts is 14.24 cents per kilowatt hour, the seventh-highest in the country and more than 4 cents higher than the national average.
"We understand we need to do better at looking at rates and being a rate advocate," she said.
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