In an announcement made on tax filing day, the U.S. Treasury Dept. announced that it was ready to deliver billions of dollars to six major mortgage lenders as they announced their participation in the Obama administration’s “Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan”. The program’s lofty goal is to save 4 to 5 million at risk homes from foreclosure but separate announcements today detailing a rapid rise in foreclosures during the first quarter of the year could be telling a different story.

The irony here is that two of the banks, namely J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo, are supposedly collecting billions to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. These are the same banks that said, along with FNMA and FHLMC, that they have increased foreclosure activity in recent weeks as they let self-imposed foreclosure moratoriums expire.

In addition to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo, the other recipients are CitiMortgage Inc., GMAC Mortgage Inc., Saxon Mortgage Services Inc. and Select Portfolio Servicing. The total to be divided among the six lenders is $9.9 billion.