The bank's release will come one day ahead of the newest Treasury scorecard. Those monthly scorecards tally how many HAMP modifications Bank of America and the other big banks have under way.
The bank's critics have pointed to two sets of figures in those reports. They have noted that the bank has started modifications for only a small fraction of the loans that are potentially eligible for the program - about 157,000 out of just over 1 million, or 15 percent, according to the December report, though that percentage could rise in the new report. CitiMortgage, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and GMAC fared better, each with at least 30 percent in the December report.
Bank of America disputes the Treasury's estimate that there are more than 1 million Bank of America borrowers who are eligible for HAMP. The Treasury's estimate is based on the number of borrowers at least two months in default; it does not take into account how many of them meet HAMP's income requirements and other prerequisites. The Treasury says its estimate "isn't perfect, but it's something to measure against."
Bank of America points out that it has modified hundreds of thousands of loans without the government program, and those modifications aren't included on the Treasury scorecard. About three-quarters of the bank's modifications over the past two years have been outside of HAMP.
Banks have always been able to modify mortgages, but the issue has heated up as millions of homeowners face foreclosure and the effects of the housing crisis spread throughout the broader economy. When a bank modifies a mortgage, it can lower the interest rate, extend the life of the loan or even forgive some of the principal - anything that might help a borrower keep his home. It's generally in the bank's best interest too: It's usually more profitable to modify a mortgage than to foreclose.
To be sure, plenty of borrowers have legitimate complaints about the process. Some have encountered unhelpful customer reps, lenders who never seemed to get their faxes, and bankers who gave them conflicting information about how to apply.
The latest criticism of Bank of America came from a second set of figures released in the Treasury's December report. It gave the skeptics a new arrow in their quiver, because it was the first to measure how many modifications had been transitioned from trial to permanent. That's where Bank of America had racked up only 98 modifications. Wells Fargo, by contrast, had completed more than 3,500 permanent modifications, and JPMorgan Chase had done more than 4,300.
The trial modifications work like this: After a bank and a homeowner agree to new mortgage terms, the bank places the homeowner on trial for three months or more. If the homeowner is successful in paying the modified mortgage, then the modification is made permanent.
When the Treasury created HAMP, it instructed banks to do the modifications this way.
Bank of America doesn't totally deserve the firestorm over permanent vs. trial modifications, according to some experts. For one thing, it's sometimes the fault of the borrower, not the bank, when there's a holdup in the conversion. Sometimes, the borrower doesn't pay the modified mortgage. Other times, they don't submit the paperwork.
Bank of America said last month that it had about 50,000 customers who had successfully paid three months of modified mortgages but hadn't turned in the paperwork for converting them to permanent. The bank said it's trying to reach those customers by phone, mail and face to face. That can be an uphill battle because borrowers who are in trouble are often wary of their bank.
Bank of America says it's committed to HAMP and points out how it has more trial modifications under way than any other bank: Today, it's expected to announce that it has 200,000 customers in trial modifications under HAMP, up about 43,000 from last month. It says it plans to be No. 1 in permanent modifications as well.
Mark Fogarty, editor of National Mortgage News, said after the December report that Bank of America's low number of permanent modifications wasn't unique. Though Wells and JPMorgan Chase both had several thousand permanent modifications in the December report, Wachovia had just 351. CitiMortgage had 271.
Bob Gnaizda, who has worked with the Greenlining Institute and other advocacy groups to push Bank of America to modify more mortgages, said he doesn't think Bank of America's No. 1 status in trial modifications is an adequate measure. The trial modifications, he said, "are a gimmick by the banks to induce homeowners to make payments for a few more months rather than walk away."
But Gnaizda also said he's optimistic that Bank of America will eventually lead the way in permanent modifications. He praised former chief executive Ken Lewis for getting out of subprime lending and cleaning up questionable practices at Countrywide Financial, which it bought in 2008.
Last week, on his first real day on the job, new CEO Brian Moynihan said that helping struggling homeowners is the key consumer issue on his agenda. Speaking to a Raleigh crowd, he asked that the bank's efforts be judged with respect to challenges like high unemployment and the competing interests of the parties involved in each mortgage.
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