Countrywide expands scope of mortgage help
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Countrywide Financial says it will expand programs to help borrowers manage their mortgage payments regardless of the type of subprime loan they have or whether they have already fallen behind on payments.
The plan would offer loan modifications for both fixed and adjustable loans and to borrowers who’ve already fallen behind.
Full details of the initiative, the result of a pact with a national community advocacy group, were to be disclosed Monday. Initial plans to disclose the deal were postponed last month after Countrywide agreed to be acquired by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) for $4.1 billion in stock.
Countrywide (CFC, Fortune 500), the nation’s largest mortgage lender and home loan servicer, has sought to address the growing number of defaults on its books by modifying loan terms, working out long-term repayment plans and other actions. The company said last month it helped more than 81,000 borrowers keep their mortgage payments manageable in 2007.
The company also was among the lenders who agreed to a Bush administration-proposed agreement to freeze rates on some subprime mortgages for five years.
Those efforts focused on borrowers with adjustable rate mortgages that were still being paid but set to adjust to higher monthly payments.
The latest initiative, brokered with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, calls for Countrywide to try to manage payment plans for borrowers that are already behind in payments, regardless of which type of subprime loan they have.
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- Source: Summarized from CNN, Feb. 18, 2008
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