(Washington, D.C.) The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America’s (“NACA”) CEO Bruce Marks will be testifying on Thursday September 20th before the House Financial Services Committee. Also testifying will be the Treasury Secretary, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Secretary of HUD, CEO of Fannie Mae and CEO of Freddie Mac. NACA, as the only community organization testifying, will address the immediate crisis of over two million homeowners who will lose their homes if the proposed solutions are not significantly expanded.
Neither the Administration’s nor the Congressional proposals will have a significant impact on the subprime crisis. “If immediate action is not taken to prevent massive numbers of foreclosures, the crisis will push the economy into a recession,” states Bruce Marks, NACA CEO, “While there should not be a taxpayer bailout, the lenders and investment bankers who created the problem must fix it by restructuring loans to what homeowners can afford.” The Federal Reserves’ action on interest rates will not allow many of these borrowers to refinance. NACA will continue to press the administration, congress, and the regulators to require predatory lenders and servicers such as Countrywide Financial to restructure borrower’s loans to what they can afford.
Countrywide’s latest plan to hire more staff in India to collect on American homeowner’s facing foreclosure is further indication of the predatory practices of the nation’s largest lender. Also, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must use their influence to require Countrywide and other companies who they do business with to have standards and policies in place to restructure subprime or unaffordable mortgages. NACA will be requesting further information on its understanding that Treasury Secretary Paulson requested Bank of America’s CEO Ken Lewis to purchase Countrywide. NACA will also be announcing further actions against Countrywide. NACA has taken the campaign against Countrywide and the need to restructure loans to an international audience. NACA has done numerous interviews with media throughout the world and Bruce Marks was recently in London on the show Global Players on CNBC which is a monthly show with a world-wide audience of over 300 million.