Citigroup's support for a plan to let bankruptcy judges modify the terms of troubled mortgages and help borrowers avoid foreclosure left its banking industry counterparts on the defensive yesterday, insisting that the plan would do more harm than good....

The housing market has been in meltdown largely because home buyers too quickly snatched up mortgages they could not afford and lenders were too eager to sell those mortgages to them. As a result, the last thing anyone would want is to ease government regulation of mortgage lending....

The housing market has been in meltdown largely because home buyers too quickly snatched up mortgages they could not afford and lenders were too eager to sell those mortgages to them. As a result, the last thing anyone would want is to ease government regulation of mortgage lending....

The nation's largest lending institutions are lobbying hard to block a proposal in Congress that would give bankruptcy judges greater latitude to rewrite mortgages held by financially strapped homeowners....