JPMorgan Chase won’t put any more homes into foreclosure for the next 90 days while it implements a plan to help borrowers stay in their homes, the company announced Friday.

The plan will include proactive offers to refinance mortgages to more affordable terms and a network of 24 regional counseling centers to help homeowners.

Chase will hire 300 loan counselors and 150 people to review mortgages before they are placed into foreclosure to ensure homeowners were offered modifications first.

With the customers of the newly acquired Washington Mutual – which has 67 branches in Oregon, – in the fold, Chase’s program could help about 400,000 families with $70 billion in loans nationwide, the company said. It didn’t estimate a cost.

Chase received $25 billion through the U.S. Treasury Department, which became a shareholder in the bank.

The plan will pay particular attention to WaMu’s payment option adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), where borrowers can pay less than the monthly interest. This allows the balance of the loan to grow, which is called negative amortization.

Chase said it will offer borrowers with payment option ARMs alternatives such as 30-year, fixed-rate loans with affordable payments, principal deferral and interest-only payments for 10 years.

Other Chase and WaMu borrowers that could experience problems also will receive help through interest-rate reductions and principal forbearance, in which the bank would forgive part of the principal.

(Source: Portland Business Journal)