Feeling heat from lawmakers, consumer groups, investors, and others to provide a concrete plan on loan modifications that would help millions of people facing foreclosure, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner yesterday hosted a roundtable of dozens of interested parties.

The meeting, held at the Treasury Department, drew lobbyists from the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, Mortgage Bankers Association of America, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and more. Also in attendance were representatives from the Center for Responsible Lending, La Raza, the NAACP, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. "It was a listening session," says one financial sector lobbyist who sat in on the session. Geithner, he adds, "asked for everybody's ideas" and their priorities in dealing with foreclosure mitigation.

Lobbyists say that the administration seems to be on a very short timetable and may unveil a proposal in about two weeks that would detail how the $50 billion pledged by the administration to assist distressed homeowners would actually work. Shaun Donovan, the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was also at the meeting.

                                                                                                             -- Peter H. Stone