Citigroup is suspending foreclosure actions for about 4,000 borrowers scheduled to lose their home during the holiday season.

The New York-based bank announced Thursday that its CitiMortgage= and CitiFinancial business units will halt all foreclosure sales on Citi-owned first mortgage accounts nationwide and cease evictions on REO properties already seized, effective December 18, 2009 through January 17, 2010.

Citi’s month-long foreclosure moratorium affects only those loans owned by the bank, approximately 20 percent of its $746 billion mortgage servicing and lending portfolio. The program does not apply to the other 80 percent that it services for investors.

The bank expects the national suspension will affect approximately 2,000 borrowers scheduled to have foreclosure sales and another 2,000 that were to receive foreclosure notifications in the next 30 days.

The foreclosure suspension is reminiscent of the moratoriums put in place by most lenders at about this same time last year, when the administration was laying the groundwork for its Making Home Affordable program.

As many analysts warned, the moratoriums only served to delay the inevitable and foreclosure numbers soared once they were lifted, but Citi says it’s simply hoping to bring some holiday relief to its customers.

“We hope that with this suspension we can make the holidays a little less stressful for our customers who are going through a very difficult time,” said Sanjiv Das, president and CEO of CitiMortgage. “And we will continue to look for meaningful ways to assist our customers experiencing hardship.”

Citi says its multi-faceted Homeowner Assistance Program has helped approximately 715,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure and remain in their homes since the housing crisis began in 2007. The bank says it makes “strenuous attempts” to establish contact with distressed homeowners, and does not initiate or complete a foreclosure sale on any borrower eligible for assistance where Citi owns the mortgage, the borrower is seeking to stay in the home as their primary residence, and is “working in good faith” with Citi to work out affordable mortgage payments.