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New York -- Downey Financial Corp. will have to treat home loan modifications as a "troubled debt restructuring" under accounting rules as the result of an interpretation change by its auditors, KPMG, the company said.
The change involves loans that were current and where the new interest rate was no less than those offered to new borrowers. But because Downey did not re-underwrite the loans, the troubled debt restructuring classification was triggered, according to the KPMG interpretation of accounting rules.
Downey implemented the loan modification program early in the third quarter to reduce potential "payment shock" for borrowers facing upward resets of their monthly payment on payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages. Participants were refinanced into five-year hybrid ARMs or ARMs that adjust annually but do not involve negative amortization.
Downey says that 95% of the affected ...