The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a new round of eligibility requirements to determine if a lender is eligible for more incentives in 2010. Lenders are ranked in tiers depending on loss mitigation performance from Oct. 1, 2008 to Sept. 30, 2009. Only Tier 1 lenders are eligible for the incentive payments from HUD. A total of 117 banks are eligible for the funds. The high-volume servicers eligible to receive the payments include Bank of America, Chase Home Finance, CitiMortgage, GMAC Mortgage, Midland Mortgage, PNC Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. The Tier Ranking Scores represent a lender’s loss mitigation efforts compared to foreclosure claims paid by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) during the performance period. Tier 1 lenders must have a workout ratio at or higher than 80%. The lenders can receive an additional $100 payment for each special forbearance agreement executed on or after Jan. 1, 2010, on top of the customary $100 available to even non-Tier 1 lenders. In addition to the standard four-month period to market HUD properties sold under a pre-foreclosure sale, Tier 1 lenders receive an automatic extension of two extra months to market those properties. Tier 1 lenders can receive an increase in the reimbursement of foreclosure costs from two-thirds to 75% for some insurance claims received by HUD on or after Jan. 1, 2009 for loans endorsed on or after Feb. 1, 1998. According to the latest Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) transaction report, the high-volume Tier 1 banks already receive a total cap incentive of $16.1bn through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which the US Treasury Department launched in March 2009 for the modification of loans on the verge of foreclosure. The Tier 1 servicers also combined for just over 98,000 permanent HAMP modifications through February, or 57% of the 170,000 modifications provided by all 113 servicers. Write to Jon Prior.