Results of the Bank of America/Countrywide settlement

Last October a settlement was brokered by several states requiring sub-prime lender Countrywide Financial Corp. to provide loan modifications for as many as 395,000 borrowers nationwide. Under the agreement, eligible borrowers will be able to modify the terms of their loans to make monthly payments more affordable. This WSJ article provides a status of the loan modifications that have been done by Bank of America which now owns Countrywide:

Bank of America Corp. has so far modified mortgages for more than 50,000 borrowers as part of its settlement of predatory lending charges brought by state attorneys general against Countrywide Financial Corp.

According to the article, the loan modifications have helped some, but the results are mixed:

"Some modifications offered under the settlement are "affordable to homeowners and sustainable in the long term," says Gabe del Rio, vice president of lending and homeownership for Community Housing Works in San Diego, which counsels borrowers facing foreclosure, "but despite the best efforts of this lawsuit, the settlement is still not providing real solutions in every case."

Bank of America has a fact sheet with many of the eligibility details for modifications.