While senior Obama administration officials are finalizing the central elements of their rescue plan for the banking system, they are not as far along in working through the daunting details of how to spend as much as $100bn to help homeowners facing foreclosure, two sources close to the discussions said yesterday.

Officials view the mortgage initiative as critical to turning the ailing housing market around and making the politically unpopular bailout more palatable, other sources said. But designing what could be the most sweeping foreclosure prevention program in decades has not been easy. Officials have said they will unveil their rescue plan for the financial system on Monday but have not said whether the mortgage modification effort would also be announced then.

Washington Post