NEW TECHNOLOGY

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several big banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, are expanding efforts to halt home foreclosures while the Obama administration develops a plan to help struggling homeowners.

The White House said President Obama would outline his plan to spend at least $50 billion to prevent foreclosures in a speech on Wednesday in Arizona, one of the states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.

“It’s not intended to be measured by one day’s market scorekeeping, but instead to ensure that the 10,000 Americans each day that have their homes foreclosed on — and the millions more that are barely getting by — are protected,” the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Friday.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner announced a revised effort to stabilize the financial system on Tuesday. It included outlines of a foreclosure relief effort.

Although lenders have bolstered their efforts to aid borrowers over the last year, their action has not kept up with the worst housing recession in decades.

More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007, and industry analysts say that number could soar as high as 10 million in the coming years, depending on the severity of the recession.

JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and the Bank of America said Friday that they were halting foreclosures through March 6. And Citigroup said it would halt foreclosures until the Obama administration completed the details of the loan modification program or until March 12, whichever is earlier. Citigroup’s action expands on a similar effort that it started in November.

The banks’ pledges apply to owner-occupied homes, not those owned by investors.

Mr. Obama’s announcement is expected to include details about how the administration plans to prod the mortgage industry to do a better job of modifying the terms of home loans so borrowers can have lower monthly payments.

Howard Glaser, a mortgage industry consultant who served in the Clinton administration, said that if the payments of two million borrowers were lowered by $500 a month, it would cost the government and lenders $6 billion each year — assuming lenders match half the cost.

Unlike previous loan modification plans, borrowers would not have to be in default to qualify, according to people briefed on the plan.

Figuring out who would qualify would be a challenge, especially as foreclosures continue to soar. More than 274,000 American households received at least one foreclosure-related notice last month, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service.