American Home Mortgage Servicing this week joined a growing list of servicers participating in the US Treasury Department‘s modification incentive program under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) allocates TARP funds to servicers to use as interest rate reduction subsidies or to distribute to lender/investors and borrowers that participate. The Treasury allocated a cap of $1.27bn to American Home under the HAMP program, according to a company statement. American Home joins the list of 31 servicers already signed on, according to the latest TARP transaction report. Four others — PNC Bank, MorEquity, Shore Bank and Farmers State Bank — recently joined since the early July additions. They received caps of $54.47m, $23.48m, $1.41m and $170,000, respectively. All told, the Treasury has allocated a total $18.74bn in TARP funding caps to these 31 institutions — $20bn with the addition of American Home as the 32nd — but may adjust individual caps based on actual participation in the program. OneWest Bank recently implemented HAMP for loans serviced on behalf of mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), and is in the process of working with the Treasury and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to apply the program toward the rest of the loans it services, according to a statement by CEO Terry Laughlin. The influx of servicers to the program comes after Treasury secretary Tim Geithner and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Shaun Donovan issued a letter to the 23 servicers signed up at the time, pushing for a ramp-up of modification efforts under the program as well as increased staff and call center expansions. Write to Diana Golobay.

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