How do loan modifications benefit lenders and borrowers?

A loan modification is usually a win-win situation: the lenders get their money in a reworked fashion and borrowers get a new chance to support their mortgage payments at a reduced cost.

But, under the HAMP plan, there are incentives for both lender and borrower. According to the Treasury:

• Pay for Success Incentives to Servicers: Servicers will receive an up-front fee of $1,000 for each eligible modification meeting guidelines established under this initiative. They will also receive pay for success fees awarded monthly as long as the borrower stays current on the loan of up to $1,000 for each year for three years.
• Incentives to help borrowers stay current: To provide an extra incentive for borrowers to keep paying on time, the initiative will provide a monthly balance reduction payment that goes straight towards reducing the principal balance of the mortgage loan. As long as a borrower stays current on his or her loan, he or she can get up to $1,000 each year for five years.
• Reaching Borrowers Early: To keep lenders focused on reaching borrowers who are trying their best to stay current on their mortgages, an incentive payment of $500 will be paid to servicers, and an incentive payment of $1,500 will be paid to mortgage holders, if they modify at-risk loans before the borrower falls behind.
• Home Price Decline Reserve Payments: To encourage lenders to modify more mortgages and enable families to keep their homes, the administration -- together with the FDIC -- has developed an innovative partial guarantee initiative. The insurance fund to be created by the Treasury Department at a size of up to $10 billion will be designed to discourage lenders from opting to foreclose on mortgages that could be viable now out of fear that home prices will fall even further later on. Hodlers of mortgages modified under the program would be provided with an additional insurance payment on each modified loan, linked to declines in the home price index.

Also, banks would rather have you stay in your home than risk foreclosure since they stand to lose more money through foreclosure. Think about it: a bank would need to make any repairs to the home, pay real estate agents to list it, and then perhaps list it at a discounted price. And, if the real estate market is slow, the price could be further reduced.