Point of View: Servicers Must Help Borrowers Recover.(Asset backed securities)(slumping housing market)

Ms. Bair is chairman of the FDIC. This viewpoint is an excerpt of her remarks at a recent investors conference hosted by Clayton Holdings Inc. in New York.

This is a very complicated market. There's a lot of money at stake. It's hurting housing. It's tightening credit conditions. It's affecting the U.S. and global economies.

And worse yet, millions of peoples' homes are on the line.

I think we're making progress in developing solutions that promote a stable secondary market, and that benefits most market participants and borrowers. But we need to do more, and do it faster.

We're strongly encouraging banks, loan servicers, and others to try to find refinancing or restructuring opportunities for people who are trapped in these adjustable-rate mortgages as they reset to higher interest rates.

Last month, the federal banking agencies along with the National Credit Union Administration and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors formally urged servicers to work with borrowers to mitigate losses and keep people in their homes.

Our main target is loans held in securitization structures, where restructuring can be more complicated given the many players involved in these transactions.