Jesus, not again. Empty, transparent election promises. Our politicians have no shame embedded in their DNA. Hope this is not VAT money.

I am getting there.

Why not get the Central Bank to just lower the random prime rate that they have set, then everyone's mortgage payments will go down? Those lenders struggling to make ends meet will be helped and those who can better afford to pay their mortgage will have additional savings that they may hopefully spend locally and thus boost the economy.

“The programme has been designed to make it as attractive as possible for eligible borrowers to agree to participate - eg, through large reductions in monthly payments, the ability to immediately start paying lower amounts prior to loan modification paperwork, etc,” he said.

Does this mean that principal or interest will be magically reduced or will the poor struggling homeowner end up paying five times the original amount borrowed instead of the usual two to three? Let's not forget the V.A.T. levied on ALL bank transactions.

If the P.M. is suggesting the Government will pick up the slack, that will never happen! The Treasury does not like to write cheques (at least not for debts owed lol!).

Beware of the PLP voodoo economics this year

The only winners here are the banks. All they are doing is extending your payment plan and increasing the amount of iterest they collect. There is no where in this plan to reduce your liability. Another problem is,no matter how low the payments are,if you aint gat no job ya still can't pay

Amen ........ Why cannot that brilliant mind of John Rolle at the Central Bank reduce the fixed prime rate from 4% to at least 2% to help Bahamians??? ... this man cannot claim that he has not had the international experience and exposure to how a simple adjustment of the prime rate will ease the pain of thousands of Bahamian borrowers ...... then enforce a serious savings plan for all borrowers

Comrade PM I wouldn't be referencing a "2013" mortgage relief program that only
four or five homeowners are "still expected" to receive financial relief.

what type homes does the 1000 qualify delinquent homeowners have...wow....but hey its fascinating that our government has an mortgage plan to assist delinquent home owners betters new its costing the taxpayers 20m.........wtf.......

First of all a proper diagnosis should be done as to why the problem of some 4,500 defaults affecting these mortgagors and FAMILIES, parents, children, elderly in these homes and tying up 800-900 million. Many banks operating from headoffices overseas and monitored daily through computer pipeline also mandated that local officers have tremendous loans to give out targets for officers to get bonuses etc. many loans were given out utilizing mortgage Indemnities insurances allowing the customer to increase risk, many loans were close to their TDSR (total debt service ratios) of 45% of income repaying all loans. (and in cases giving out Credit Cards after TDSR) The recession is not all to blame. The nonsense of Foreign Headoffices dictating their policies to strip mine all profits must stop. Bahamians know their markets, culture better. No bank is perfect and many have made mistakes and contributed to this mess. Pressure must be brought to these Banks to accept their responsibility between their customer and themselves being the other party. The taxpayers should not be another party to footing the bill. The Central Bank should be responsible in protecting the Consumers from banks putting customers at risk from predatory Banking practices, protect the Bahamas economy from foreign banks from stripping profits which are then taxed by foreign countries made by the sweat, tears and suffering of Bahamians. The nonsense of having banking empires made with sacrifices in enticing foreign capital with our BAHAMIAN BIRTHRIGHT to start businesses employ BAHAMIANS to get jobs and then loans at foreign banks which ship profits out AND NOW THE AUDACITY of them to ship jobs by the sweat of BAHAMIAN workers to have BAHAMIAN BANKING customer and confidential information on loans done by other countries like Barbados, Jamaica Trinidad is UTTER NONSENSE. Seems unregulated banking has devastated families, housing markets, businesses, insurance life and house, appraisers, contractors, repairmen, impacted share prices, etc and tied up some 800-900 million of banking. Banks are not perfect and the govt needs to make these banks to be held accountable for this GIGANTIC fiasco and not the average Bahamian taxpayers.