Arnie Teams With 4 Lenders to Hold Off Foreclosures

Four big lenders in California have agreed to extend low-interest mortgage rates to homeowners on the brink of foreclosure, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The lenders worked with Gov. Schwarzenegger on the deal, which will apply to subprime borrowers who have made payments on time so far but will be unable to do so when the rates jump.

"We can save tens of thousands of people from being added to the foreclosure lists," Schwarzenegger said. The program’s duration is up in the air, but it's meant to last through the current crisis, even several years, said a lenders’ rep. It’s not just a deal for consumers, one mortgage exec said: Foreclosures are expensive for lenders, too. (More Arnold Schwarzenegger stories.)