Joining the ranks of IndyMac and JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup recently announced that they are going to try and double their measures to prevent foreclosure, assisting 130,000 distressed borrowers with over $20 billion tied up in home mortgages.

The pressure is on for banks to up their level of assistance as many tax dollars are being put aside for these measures. Citi´s plan of action, is called the Citi Homeownership Assistance Program, and is aimed at over 500,000 of their borrowers. The CEO of Citi Mortgages, Sanjiv Das, believes that at least a quarter of those borrowers will be able to take advantage of the program during the next six months. Beyond that, Das also said that "We're reaching out to borrowers in areas of steeper-than-usual falling prices and higher-than-average unemployment," such as Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, and Ohio. Based on the economic conditions per area, Citi will evaluate where the greatest changes in mortgages are needed, and will then send letters to the borrowers there, letting them know about their options.

For now, the program is only available to borrowers that are current on their payments, but are at risk, which is mainly those who owe more then their current home value. Citi has an older program in use, for those are already in default, which can involve reduced interest rates to as low as 1% for possibly 2 years. With their new program, for those about to default, Citi will reduce their monthly mortgage payment/property tax/insurance to about 40% or less, of their income. Also, in order to be eligible, the borrowers´ loans must be bank, rather then investor owned.

Jared Bernstein, a senor economist with the Economic Policy Institute, says that these measures by IndyMac, JPMorgan, and Citi represent a great step for fixing the housing crisis, but that there is still a long way to go.