WASHINGTON – The Obama administration, scrambling to get its main housing initiative on track, extracted a pledge from 25 mortgage company executives to improve their efforts to assist borrowers in danger of foreclosure.

The sessions came amid concerns that the Obama administration will fall far short of its original goal of helping up to 3 million to 4 million troubled borrowers with modified loans.

As of this week, only about 200,000 borrowers were enrolled in three-month trial loan modifications, out of about 370,000 who were offered modifications by mortgage companies.

Bankers have done the equivalent of stuffing the mattress in the last few months, despite being prodded by the government to lend the hundreds of billions in cash being pumped into the banking system by the Federal Reserve and other regulators.

They’ve been hoarding cash at the Federal Reserve, some $793 billion of excess reserves as of the end of January, which is more than double the amount of money doled out or pledged to financial companies through the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Banks have to stash away a minimal level of reserves, but they can keep extra reserves. Last year at this time, excess reserves totaled $1.7 billion, according to Fed data. Back then, excess reserves were considered uneconomical, since banks could make more profits off lending the money to fellow banks overnight or to clients. But that all changed in October, when the Fed started paying interest.

The Treasury Department gave General Motors Corp. its first multibillion-dollar loan installment Wednesday and released broad guidelines that would let officials provide funds to any company they deem important to making or financing cars.

The Treasury is giving itself room to provide money from the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program beyond loans already committed to GM, GMAC and Chrysler. Analysts have speculated that suppliers, such as GM’s bankrupt former parts unit Delphi Corp., might be eligible for assistance.