As the foreclosure crisis appears to show no sign of slowing, the president wants to increase pressure on mortgage companies to help people remain in their homes.

A new program is to be announced and the goal will be to increase the rate at which distressed home loans are convereted into new loans with lower monthly payments.

The Treasury is also expected to announce that the loan modifications must be permanent before it will pay cash incentives to lenders that lower mortgage payments.

Industry officials said the new effort would include increased pressure on mortgage companies to accelerate loan modifications by highlighting firms that are lagging in that area.

Under the current $75 billion program, the Treasury awards lenders $1,000 initially — and $1,000 annually for up to three years — each time they agree to lower a troubled borrower’s payments rather than foreclose on the property. Those cash incentives come from the government’s $700-billion financial bailout package.

But critics say the incentives aren’t making enough of a dent in foreclosures.

Analysts said the foreclosure crisis is likely to persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of their homes.

A report last week from the Mortgage Bankers Assn. found that 14% of homeowners with mortgages were either behind on payments or in foreclosure at the end of September, a record level for the ninth straight quarter.

Rising foreclosures depress home prices and threaten the sustainability of the fledgling economic recovery.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, a committee that monitors spending under Treasury’s bailout program, concluded in a report last month that foreclosures are now threatening families who took out conventional, fixed-rate mortgages and put down payments of 10 to 20 percent on homes that would have been within their means in a normal market.

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