Bush to announce mortgage relief plan

US President George W. Bush will today announce a freeze on some subprime mortgages in an effort to stop a wave of foreclosures, according to a report on the website of Bloomberg.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and regulators forged an agreement with lenders that will fix interest rates on some loans for five years, the report said quoting people familiar with the plan.

The collapse in the market for securities backed by subprime mortgages cost the chief executive officers of Merrill Lynch and Citigroup their jobs, roiled markets and forced the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates twice, the report said.

Bush is scheduled to make a statement on the housing industry at 1:40 pm in Washington, and Paulson will address a press conference later today.

The accord may help between 200,000 and 500,000 borrowers representing as much as a quarter of the 2 million adjustable-rate mortgages due to reset over the next two years, the report said.