By Greg Robb
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The Treasury Department announced Monday that it was kicking off a new effort to help homeowners struggling to meet mortgage payments. The new plan is designed to press banks to turn “trial” mortgage modifications into “permanent” arrangements. As part of the program, the government will step up its monitoring of banks and mortgage companies by putting in place a system to generate daily reports on progress. Firms that fail to meet prior obligations will suffer monetary penalties and sanctions. Over the weekend, Treasury officials complained publicly that banks had not done enough to help homeowners. Data on how many of the 650,000 borrowers in the modification program have permanent modifications will be released next month. The number is expected to be quite low. About 375,000 mortgages are scheduled to convert to permanent modifications by the end of the year.

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