The FDIC has taken their first step as new owners of IndyMac by stopping all foreclosures on their mortgages. Shelia Bair, the FDIC Chairman, berated mortgage lenders for foreclosing on properties rather than working with the borrowers on refinancing mortgages.

From Reuters…

“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has temporarily halted any foreclosures on the $15 billion of bank-owned mortgage loans found in IndyMac’s portfolio, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said on Monday.

Bair has scolded mortgage lenders for being too slow to help distressed borrowers restructure their home loans.”

It will be interesting to see how the FDIC will restructure the mortgages of customers who are way upside-down in the their house mortgage.