Bank of America settles suits over bad mortgages in Ohio, other states
Settlement could help owners pay mortgages
By Staff and wire reports
POSTED: 09:46 p.m. EDT, Oct 06, 2008
Facing a lawsuit over deceptive mortgage practices, Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay more than $8 billion to modify hundreds of thousands of loans to keep people in Ohio and other states from losing their homes.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., said Monday it will modify troubled mortgages with up to $8.4 billion in interest rate and principal reductions for nearly 400,000 customers of Countrywide Financial Corp., the mortgage lender it acquired last summer……
….. Options include revising customers' payments so they don't exceed 34 percent of income, reducing interest rates and adjusting principal so that borrowers don't wind up actually losing equity under some payment plans.
Countrywide will not charge fees to modify the loans and will waive prepayment penalties.
Some borrowers might qualify to pay nothing but interest for a decade. Even people who can't afford to keep their homes with such changes will be able to get help moving to a new home…..
