A borrower’s satisfaction with his or her mortgage servicer tends to decrease as the borrower becomes delinquent, but a survey by JD Power and Associates indicates servicer outreach may mitigate the decline in satisfaction. Servicer satisfaction among borrowers that contacted their servicer averaged 613 on a 1,000-point scale, while that average improved to 651 among borrowers contacted proactively by the servicer. “The current challenging economic circumstances give mortgage servicers an opportunity to grow their business, particularly with low interest rates and the large number of customers who wish to refinance their mortgages,” said David Lo, director of financial services, in a media statement. Whether the servicer contacts the borrower or vice versa bears little effect on mitigating the actual occurence of delinquency, however. JD Power, a marketing information services provider, found 21% of respondents indicate they are behind on payments or are worried about becoming delinquent, based on a survey of 5,000 borrowers conducted in May. Ocwen Financial ranked the lowest in borrower satisfaction, indexing a 552-point score out of 1,000. American Home Mortgage Servicing followed closely with a 578-point score. Regions Mortgage scored the highest (780) on customer service satisfaction, while BB&T followed with 777 and US Bank came in third with 771. Write to Diana Golobay.

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