Subprime Mortgage Plan to Aid Borrowers and Mortgage Market, OFHEO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department’s plan to aid some subprime mortgage borrowers is aimed at helping as many mortgage holders as possible without disrupting the market for mortgages, the director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said on Friday.

“The whole idea in the initiative … is to make sure as many can be saved as possible without disrupting the market,” James Lockhart told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in New York.

The plan’s focus is also likely to be more on a borrower’s payment history than their credit, he added.

He also said that officials want to mend the mortgage market and keep lending rates down for a while, giving the marketplace time to recover from its current turmoil.