Treasury Department will rate lenders participating in mortgage modification plan

Gov’t to rate how lenders treat borrowers

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the Obama administration will rate mortgage companies on how they treat customers in its $75 billion foreclosure relief effort.

The new report will include measurements how each is handling borrowers and is expected by July, Geithner told Senate lawmakers on Thursday. More than 100 companies are participating in the program, which is designed to help up to 4 million borrowers avoid foreclosure.

Geithner says many companies “are not responding to the needs of responsible and increasingly desperate homeowners.”

If they don’t comply with the program’s rules, he says, “we will withhold incentives or demand their repayment.”