Critic says B of A resists mortgage help

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The head of a nonprofit group that agreed with Countrywide Financial Corp CFC.N on a program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure said on Wednesday that he was meeting resistance from Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which is buying the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

Bruce Marks, chief executive of Neighborhood Assistance Corp of America, said he was concerned that the largest U.S. retail bank won't do as much as its big balance sheet and access to capital markets would allow to address the nation's housing crisis.

Bank of America's planned purchase of Countrywide would create a lender making one in four U.S. home loans and servicing more than $1.9 trillion of mortgages. Servicers handle billing and payment collections.

Countrywide's agreement with NACA calls on the lender to restructure mortgages so that people who might otherwise lose their homes can afford the loans over the longer term. Last month, Countrywide said it had helped more than 81,000 borrowers last year stay in their residences.

At the Reuters Housing Summit in New York, Marks said Bank of America had the potential to do even more.

"The question is, are they going to make it the standard for all the loans that they service," he said. "Actually, we have gotten resistance from them, that it doesn't appear that that's where their mindset is at."

Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri declined to discuss Marks' specific comments, but said the bank works with many community groups to seek solutions for struggling borrowers. He also said Bank of America and Countrywide share the goal of keeping distressed mortgage borrowers in their homes, and helping homebuyers in communities affected by the housing downturn.

On January 11, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America agreed to buy Countrywide in an all-stock transaction valued Tuesday at about $4.5 billion. The purchase is scheduled to close in the third quarter.

Earlier Wednesday, 91 California community groups demanded that Bank of America halt mortgage foreclosures if it completes its purchase of Countrywide.

In a letter to Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, the groups said the moratorium should cover all mortgage loans in both companies' portfolios, and that Bank of America should offer 30-year mortgages with fixed rates not exceeding 6 percent to borrowers in danger of losing their homes.

The California groups also called on Bank of America to maintain Countrywide's headquarters in Calabasas, California, and its loan servicing center in Simi Valley.

One of the 91 groups, the California Reinvestment Coalition, earlier this month joined groups in three other states to call on the U.S. Congress to hold hearings to ensure that Countrywide borrowers don't face foreclosure.

(For summit blog: summitnotebook.reuters.com/)

(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Phil Berlowitz)