SALEM — The move to expand Oregon’s mediation program for homeowners facing foreclosure moved into the trenches this week.

A lobbyist for the banking sector and another for consumers argued the merits of amendments to Senate Bill 558 meant to make seemingly arcane changes to a bill designed to help financially distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure.

“We’re trying to establish a system applicable to both judicial and nonjudicial foreclosures, to work efficiently and have borrowers have face-to-face meetings with lenders,” said Paul Cosgrove, of the Oregon Banker’s Association.

A 2012 state law, SB 1552, created a mediation requirement for foreclosure proceedings outside of state courts. Many banks abandoned mediation by taking foreclosure actions into state courts, where a backlog of cases has slowed their dispositions.

SB 558 attempts to expand the 2012 law by requiring banks to offer mediation to homeowners facing judicial foreclosures, as well.

Wednesday, at a hearing by the Senate General Government, Consumer and Small Business Protection Committee, Cosgrove and Sybil Hebb of the Oregon Law Center, a consumer advocacy organization, pored over the merits of their amendments to SB 558. Those amendments, for example, address “opting in” versus an “opting out.”

The bankers are pushing to notifying homeowners they qualify for mediation and allowing them to “opt in.” Consumer advocates argue the participation rate would be higher if homeowners are notified that a date for them to sit down with their lender and a neutral third-party has been set. To participate, all the homeowner needs to do is pay a fee by a set date.

If the fee deadline passes and the homeowner hasn’t responded, the mediation is canceled.

The two sides also tussled over whether to state explicitly that the state Attorney General has enforcement rights if the lenders don’t participate. Consumer advocates want it outlined clearly in statute.

So far, the legislation has received a public hearing and a work session.

Committee Chairman Chip Shields, D-Portland, made it clear the committee would not be voting Wednesday, only listening and discussing the bill. Next, committee members would need to vote on the legislation to move it to the upper chamber for a full Senate vote.

At the start of the legislative session, Cosgrove said the banks would also introduce an amendment within the mediation bill addressing the mortgage recording requirement. Banks created Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., or MERS. Banks created MERS, an online system, as an alternative to recording mortgages in county clerks’ offices. The banks hoped to preserve MERS by amending the mediation bill.

Now, Cosgrove said he will leave that for other legislation.

“This is a mediation bill,” he said, after the hearing in the hallway. “We’ll deal with that in another bill.”

Senate Bill 558

What it does: Expands the requirement that banks offer foreclosed-upon homeowners a chance to mediate their cases when the proceedings take place in state courts. Current law requires mediation only in foreclosures taking place outside the judicial process.

What’s next: So far, the legislation has received a public hearing and a work session. Committee members would need to vote on the legislation to move it to the upper chamber for a full Senate vote.