Investor to Restructure Home Loans

Boston Globe (08/01/08); Blanton, Kimberly
As part of an agreement the state of Massachusetts reached with WMD Capital Markets in California, as many as 200 homeowners with mortgages from Fremont Investment & Loan will be able to restructure their loans to either reduce the monthly payments or get money to relocate. The settlement is unusual because it is not with the original lender, but with an investor--in this case, an investment firm that recently acquired a portfolio of Fremont's subprime mortgages. WMD Capital Chief Executive William Daugherty says his company's primary objective is "keeping people in their houses if they can afford to pay and modifying the debt to do so." The accord is another phase of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley's lawsuit filed last fall, charging Fremont with abusive lending practices.