Trying to set an example for the mortgage industry, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Wednesday said it would offer new mortgages to thousands of troubled homeowners whose loans came from or were serviced by IndyMac Bank, which failed in July.

In Florida, that means some of IndyMac’s thousands of borrowers could be getting the offers, starting this week. According to National Mortgage News, IndyMac originated 30,223 loans in Florida in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The loans were valued at $6.3 billion.

IndyMac was a major originator of what are called Alt-A loans, which required little or no documentation of the buyer’s income.

While a greater proportion of sub prime mortgage borrowers are in trouble as the nation’s housing crisis deepens, distress is growing in the Alt-A category. According to First American CoreLogic, a mortgage data firm, 12.79 percent of Alt-A loans nationwide are 60 days or more behind in payments. That compares to 3.4 percent in May, 2007, and 1.38 percent in May, 2006.

The FDIC said it will send modification offers to 4,000 IndyMac borrowers by the end of this week and “thousands” more in following weeks.

“We hope to be a model for other servicers,” FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at a press conference.

The new loans would be fixed-rate mortgages, with payments for principal, interest, taxes and insurance equal to no more than 38 percent of the borrower’s gross monthly income.

To make the payments affordable, Bair said the agency would first consider cutting the loan’s interest rate for up to five years. Next, the loan’s length might be extended. A third tactic would be principal forbearance, in which the payment would be calculated only part of the full amount of the principal.

Interest rates on the new loans would be capped permanently at about 6.5 percent.

The new loans, however, would not forgive the debt or any part of it.

“Borrowers should understand that this modification program is for people who want to stay in their homes and to promote long-term home ownership,” she said.

The FDIC took over IndyMac in July, in the second largest bank failure in U.S. history.

At that time, the bank serviced or owned more than $184 billion in home mortgages for an estimated 740,000 borrowers.

For more information on the FDIC’s loan modification program for IndyMac borrowers, call 1-800-781-7399 or visit the FDIC website, www.fdic.gov or the IndyMac website, www.imb.com