In Q209, home retention actions that assist homeowners and avoid loss, grew by nearly 22%, according to a joint report by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). The report showed that mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures increased 8.5% and 2.9% of all serviced mortgages respectively. But as the Making Home Affordable (MHA) program launched and efforts to assist homeowners ramped up since Q108, these home retention actions rose by 75%. The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) operates beneath the umbrella of MHA and allocates cap incentives to servicers for the modification of loans in danger of foreclosure, and it requires borrowers to successfully complete a three-month trial period before the loan terms become permanent. The trials increased by 73.9% for Q209, while loan modifications fell by 25.2%. The report also showed modifications that reduced borrowers’ monthly principal and interest payments climbed to more than 78% of all new modifications, up from 54% in the previous quarter. Modifications that reduced the principal tripled to 10% in Q209, according to the report. The report also showed that current and performing mortgages, however, fell 1.4% to 88.6% of the 34m loans in the portfolios of reporting servicers, who implemented nearly 440,000 home retention actions like modifications in Q209. “These actions continued to increase more quickly than new foreclosures,” according to the report. Write to Jon Prior.