Consumer complaint received 2020-09-16
Company: REGIONS FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: SC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
In short, I have lost my XXXX/income due to Covid-19 government restrictions and human reactions to the pandemic and Regions Mortgage is unwilling to provide any mortgage modification assistance to help me get through this unimaginable and uncontrollable situation. I spent 20 years learning my industry and spend 10 years building a XXXX in providing XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for live corporate and conference events. My XXXX closed at the end of XX/XX/2020 and will not likely resume for at least another year. I have never been late on a loan payment of any kind and have a credit score in the high 800s. 
I contacted Regions Mortgage in XXXX to notify them of the impact that this pandemic has had on my business and income, in which I immediately put my mortgage into a 4 month forbearance. At the end of those 4 months, I contacted them again as nothing had changed for the better in my financial situation and entered into another 3 month forbearance. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I sent an email to XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX VP of Regions Bank XXXX Head of Consumer Banking ( attached within complaint ) to begin a conversation of how we can be fair to one another and also allow for some mortgage relief due to a situation I was forced into through no fault of my own. XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) was prompt to respond and we opened up a dialogue. 
By the beginning of XXXX, there had been no movement from Regions Mortgage  so I followed back up with XXXX to get the dialogue restarted. I received a call from their Default Supervisor, XXXX XXXX who offered me the solution that had been approved by Regions Covid-19/Loss Mitigation team, which was a mortgage interest rate modification to 4 %. My current interest rate is 3.5 % and I let him know how unhelpful this offer was. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I followed up with another email to XXXX XXXX and was advised to include XXXX to ensure more of the executive team received this correspondence ( also included in complaint ). I received a phone call from a different VP ( XXXX something or other ) to discuss my situation. I offered an opinion on what specifically will help me, why it was fair, and how it could be accomplished. XXXX stated that he would investigate what could be done, but also included a remark about hoping to not call me back being the bearer of bad news. He called me back a few weeks later and offered to modify my loan to allow me to just pay the interest and resume full payments at a later date. I let him know that, that offer was offensive and in no way helpful. I have a XXXX in XXXX and have owned a XXXX  for over 10 years and know a reasonable offer when I hear it. This was not a genuine offer of help, but was an offer that allowed the Bank to maintain not only their full profit from my mortgage, but also to ensure that they made significantly more money on my loan than they otherwise would have. I told him that at minimum I expected Regions to modify my interest rate to the current market interest rate near 2.8 % and would appreciate a greater offer of assistance as noted in my email and paid for out of federal relief funds. 
I received a phone call from XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX letting me know that my forbearance is ending this month and they are unwilling to modify my rate or offer any level of financial assistance. They are willing to roll my forbeared payments into a new loan and allow me to pay a higher monthly mortgage payment than I had before, even though my business has not returned, I have no prospects of earning a living based on my 20+ years of experience in my industry, nor is there any semblance of a return to normal life. 
I have been greatly mistreated by Regions Mortgage. At minimum, I expect to have my mortgage rate reduced to the current market rate to allow me to be less under water than I already am, through no fault of my own.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation