US mortgage lenders will have 45 days to decide whether they are willing to renegotiate the loan of a struggling borrower, according to a set of guidelines to be released on Tuesday by the Hope Now Alliance, an industry group created last year to deal with the foreclosure crisis.

The rules are part of an effort by Hope Now to improve its performance and speed up decisions by lenders as they tackle the wave of foreclosures that has rippled through the US housing market and been at the root of the economic downturn.