Report: Paulson wants lenders to aid groups of borrowers

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants lenders to help a broad range of troubled borrowers rather than deal with cases on an individual basis, according to a published report.

The Wall Street Journal said Paulson wants the mortgage-service industry to establish criteria that would allow big groups of borrowers qualify for loans with better terms - a shift from an earlier approach of dealing with problems on a case-by-case basis.

Paulson told the newspaper the number of potential defaults on home loans "will be significantly bigger" next year than in 2007 and that his view on how to approach the problem had shifted over time.

"We're never going to be able to process the number of workouts and modifications that are going to be necessary doing it just sort of one-off," he told the Journal. "I've talked to enough people now to know there's no way that's going to work," the report quoted him as saying.