To understand why the mortgage settlement package with big banks announced with great fanfare last week by President Obama met with less than universal acclaim, it’s necessary to understand the glaring limitations of this deal.

Although borrowers around the country owe more than $700 billion more on their homes than the homes are worth, the settlement offers only $26 billion in fines and relief to homeowners. It’s hard to see how this becomes a “catalytic” agent for reviving the housing market, as Shaun Donovan, secretary of housing and urban development, enthusiastically proclaimed. Housing prices in general are still falling, despite a 33 percent drop since 2006.

The package is nowhere near comprehensive insofar as offering the relief U.S. homeowners need because the number of those who will be able to take advantage of the deal is relatively small compared to the number needing help.

Consider: Some one million homeowners will have their mortgage debt reduced or loans refinanced at a lower interest rate, and up to 750,000 other borrowers who became victims of abuses in the foreclosure process could receive an average of $1,500 to $2,000. Meanwhile, mortgage experts estimate that some 11 million U.S. homeowners are underwater — they owe more on their homes than the homes are worth. Some 4 million are in foreclosure or seriously delinquent.

The settlement is limited to five big banks that own the mortgages directly. It excludes private investors, other banks and — most important — mortgages backed by federal agencies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the FHA. These agencies, which are subject to controls from the executive and Congress, account for about 56 percent of all existing loans.

For the banks, this is not such a bad deal. Critics call the $26 billion a drop in the bucket compared to both the needs in the housing market and the banks’ assets. Of the overall amount, $1.5 billion will cover “restitution” for abuses — lying to the courts, robo-signing, end-running around the law.

That comes to no more than a $2,000 fine per instance of abuse, providing huge relief for the banks and not much help for those who believe they were swindled. And banks have three years to fulfill their commitments, a period that fails to reflect the urgent need to fix the housing market and help homeowners.

Granted, this is the strongest action taken to date to compensate homeowners for mortgage and foreclosure abuses. Homeowners in Florida and California will reap about half of the $26 billion, reflecting the dire state of the housing market in these two states. But restoring the housing market and the credibility of the mortgage industry will require much more.

Most important is to enforce compliance. Previous commitments made by some lenders — for example, Countrywide, which was swallowed up by Bank of America — have fallen short, forcing the attorney general in Nevada to sue for alleged failure to meet settlement requirements. The Obama administration should also find ways to bring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a broader deal.

The administration must continue to pursue criminal prosecution of suspected fraud in loan origination and the way loans were sold to investors. This settlement fails to satisfy the public yearning for accountability by those responsible for the housing collapse. If the only punishment is a slap on the wrist, the mortgage industry will have learned nothing from this epic debacle.