Timothy F. Geithner

In the Treasury leadership role implemented a set of policy interventions aimed at stabilizing housing finance during and after the 2008 crisis. Those interventions included the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), designed to encourage loan modifications to avoid foreclosures, and the Public‑Private Investment Program (PPIP), intended to mobilize private capital to purchase legacy mortgage assets from financial institutions. Operational decisions under those programs — setting eligibility rules, incentives for servicers, and structuring PPIP funds — directly affected how distressed mortgage pools were worked out and how much private liquidity flowed into legacy MBS. Treasury’s coordination with the Federal Reserve and housing agencies also shaped program design and calibration. The resulting changes altered recovery paths for mortgages, influenced the speed and character of foreclosures and modifications, and affected price discovery for troubled mortgage securities. These policy choices had measurable downstream effects on funding costs, investor returns and the behavior of originators and servicers in mortgage markets.