Data on Housing Relief Questioned

Washington Post (06/13/08) P. D1; Cho, David; Merle, Renae
The top regulator of the nation's largest banks eased off his criticism of the data that mortgage industry groups have provided on foreclosure rates and assistance offered to troubled borrowers. The figures "get you in the ballpark . . . but we wanted to have a much more specific level of detail," John Dugan, comptroller of the currency, clarified on June 12, a day after criticizing the data in a speech in New York. Jay Brinkmann, vice president of research for the Mortgage Bankers Association, countered those remarks by saying his group's information "gives the most comprehensive look at the performance of mortgage loans from a wide variety of different types of lending institutions in order to give a consistent year-in-and-year-out picture of the landscape." Dugan questioned whether there was a rigorous process for checking the consistency and completeness of the data, which regulators use to gauge the extent of the housing slump and lenders' efforts to provide relief to struggling borrowers.