The Obama administration is putting the pressure on lenders to provide permanent loan modifications for homeowners in danger of foreclosure.

So far, the federal government’s efforts to prevent foreclosures by getting mortgage companies and banks to rewrite loans have fallen short.

More than 650,000 trial loan modifications have been issued but that’s only helped about 20 percent of eligible borrowers and the new loan terms are temporary.

In Massachusetts alone, almost 40,000 owners of single-family homes and condos have faced foreclosure since 2007, according to The Warren Group. 

Officials want to make sure that the temporary loan modifications are converted to permanent ones, so they’re saying they’re going to crack down lenders who aren’t doing enough by possibly fining them and withholding any financial incentives until trial modifications are made permanent.

They’re also requiring lenders to provide a status report on modifications and submit a schedule of their plans to reach a decision on each loan.

Banks have been complaining that it’s tough to get borrowers to send in properly completed paperwork in time to make the loan modifications. It’s too confusing for the average borrower, they say.

Lawyers and advocates who represent struggling homeowners say it’s the banks that are losing paperwork that’s submitted multiple times and shuffling their clients from one department to the next.

I’m sure both complaints are valid.