OneWest Bank Announces Moratorium on Foreclosure Sales and Evictions to Assist Borrowers During the Holidays

PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

OneWest Bank, FSB today announced it is temporarily suspending all foreclosure sales and evictions to assist borrowers over the holidays. The moratorium, which goes into effect Saturday December 19^th, 2009, applies to all single family residential loans it services through its IndyMac Mortgages Services division, and will extend until January 4, 2010. The Bank will implement the moratorium for First Federal Bank of California borrowers as well.

The temporary suspension will allow affected borrowers to remain in their homes through the holidays and provide additional time to work with the Bank. The Bank has and will continue to proactively work with borrowers to retain their homes using the President’s Home Affordable Mortgage Program (“HAMP”). To date, OneWest has completed 857 permanent HAMP modifications, and initiated 23,378 HAMP trial modifications. In addition 12,912 permanent loan modifications under the FDIC program were completed before HAMP was available. For borrowers who are not eligible for HAMP, the Bank attempts to provide alternatives to foreclosure.

About OneWest Bank, FSB

OneWest Bank, FSB is a regional bank focused on delivering personalized, relationship-based banking to its customers. The bank has 72 retail branches in Southern California with approximately $11 billion in deposits and total assets of $24 billion, including a loan portfolio, a securities portfolio, a servicing platform with mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) representing over 550,000 borrowers, and a reverse mortgage platform -- Financial Freedom. OneWest is an FDIC-insured institution and funds deposited in the bank are insured up to the FDIC’s insurance limit of $250,000 per depositor. Information about OneWest Bank can be found on the company’s website at www.onewestbank.com.