Waterbury-based Webster Bank has suspended all foreclosures for 90 days, while the company works to design more affordable payment plans for homeowners struggling to make their payments.
The bank, a subsidiary of Webster Financial Corp., which has $17.5 billion in assets, also will establish an outreach program to identify and contact at risk borrowers to see if they qualify for mortgage assistance, Chairman James C. Smith said today.
The 90-day moratorium will be extended to all homeowners who were more than 30 days delinquent on their Webster residential mortgages as of Nov. 4. The bank will then work with those customers to structure more affordable payment plans so they can stay in their homes.Â
Assistance provided under the new program may include temporarily reducing a monthly payment, extending fixed payment periods on adjustable loans, extending mortgages beyond the current length, refinancing, or adjusting interest rates.
Webster recently received $400 million as part of the federal $700 billion rescue package for the nation’s lenders.
“Just as my father did when he founded Webster Bank during the Great Depression,” Smith said, “we will do everything in our power to keep people in their homes.”
