FDIC foreclosure plan winning support: US Sen. Dodd

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Thursday that a proposal from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair to reduce foreclosures is winning support in the Obama administration.

"What I've gathered is that the FDIC proposal has gained some traction within the Treasury," Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters after a hearing.

"I don't want to suggest that they've settled on it exactly as it's been proposed by Sheila Bair. But its stock as a proposal has clearly risen," said Dodd.

Bair has proposed preventing about 1.5 million foreclosures under a plan that would reward participating lenders by sharing the cost of defaults on modified loans.

(Reporting by Kevin Drawbaugh and Karey Wutkowski)